In 2003, the Employment and Training Administration funded the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development for a three-year effort to implement the Strengthening the Connections Between Unemployment Insurance and One-Stop Delivery System Demonstration Project.  The demonstration sought to find innovative and effective approaches to facilitate linkages between the Wisconsin Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Job Service, which operates the state’s One-Stop Career Centers.  The project’s objectives were to: 1) better connect UI claimants with One-StopCareerCenter reemployment services, and 2) better connect its UI and Job Service divisions via data-sharing and joint provision of services.

A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the demonstration.  The demonstration project succeeded in increasing collaboration between the state’s UI and Job Service divisions through both its data sharing component and its implementation of expanded reemployment services and eligibility reviews of UI claimants.  In doing so, staff overcame a variety of barriers including administrative policies, the complexity of management information systems, and the communications challenges associated with creating a new project.

Overall, the demonstration project appears to have had a modest influence on the employment outcomes of participants.  Specifically,

• Demonstration participants drew UI benefits for a shorter period of time and had higher average quarterly earnings than did comparison group members; and
• The use of specific services such as assessments, job referrals, one-on-one services, and client follow-up improved the participant’s likelihood of entering employment, decreasing receipt of UI benefits, and increasing quarterly earnings.