Impact of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Initiative

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Impact of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Initiative

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2012-08

Publication Info

In the early 2000s, it became evident to policy makers that greater attention should be directed to the quality of the continued eligibility process and the reemployment needs of Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants. As a result, in March 2005 the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) funded a series of grants to State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) to provide Reemployment and Eligibility Assessments (REA) to individuals claiming UI benefits. This program is designed to assist UI claimants in developing a reemployment plan, provide them with labor market information and referrals to reemployment services and training, and assess ongoing UI eligibility. In June 2008, ETA funded a study by IMPAQ International, LLC, to analyze the effectiveness of REAs in achieving the program’s goals of reducing UI duration and increasing reemployment of UI claimants. This evaluation, which informed ETA’s report to Congress, focused on the impacts of the REA initiative in Florida, Idaho, Illinois, and Nevada. Key conclusions indicated that the REA program was generally effective in assisting claimants exit from the UI program and avoid exhausting regular UI benefits. By avoiding UI benefit exhaustion, the REA program led to reductions in the likelihood of receiving extended unemployment compensation (EUC) benefits. The combined impacts of reducing program exhaustion and receipt of EUC benefits led to significantly shorter UI durations and lower benefit payouts. One of the more interesting observations was the substantially larger impacts in the State of Nevada relative to the other study states. The Department of Labor Report to Congress was prepared by ETA and essentially summarizes this first evaluation study and both documents were transmitted to Congress on June 30, 2011. ETA was interested in exploring possible explanations for Nevada’s significantly larger impacts previously observed, and it appeared likely that Nevada’s strong integration of REA services with reemployment services for UI claimants led to the greater program impacts. Therefore, in August 2011, ETA tasked IMPAQ International with undertaking more in-depth analysis of Nevada’s REA program. Additionally, this second study focused on whether REA led to UI Trust Fund savings and whether those savings exceeded REA program costs in Nevada. While this analysis was not able to test for impacts of reemployment services separately, it reaffirmed the findings of the first study and found that the REA program in Nevada indeed led to UI Trust Fund savings and that those savings exceeded program costs by more than four times, providing strong evidence that the Nevada REA program is a cost-effective intervention. Also, in addition to assisting claimants exit from UI early, REA helped claimants obtain employment earlier than they would have in the absence of the program which led to higher total wages following program entry.