The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) provided the workforce system with a large increase in resources to increase capacity, improve its structure, and provide additional economic support and services in response to the most recent recession. United States Department of Labor (USDOL) programs were a major part of the Recovery Act. At the time of the bill’s passage, USDOL Recovery Act funding was estimated at $66 billion, ranking third among Federal agencies. Actual USDOL funding was greater than the early estimates suggest, however, both because the recession was deeper and longer than anticipated, which increased the outflow of Unemployment Insurance (UI) funds, and in larger part because the UI provisions were extended numerous times in subsequent recession-era legislation.

The Recovery Act added $2.1 billion (an increase of about 77 percent) to the Department of Labor’s appropriations in program year 2009, to provide additional job search assistance, training, and other workforce services to eligible dislocated workers, disadvantaged adults, and other jobseeker. The Recovery Act investment in UI benefits and UI system improvements was much larger than the investment in workforce services. At the time of passage of the Recovery Act, UI outlays were estimated at $45 billion, but final estimates of UI outlays grew to $200 billion taking into account subsequent UI benefit extensions.

In the spring of 2009, the ETA awarded a grant to the National Association of State Workforce Agencies/Center for Employment Security Education and Research (NASWA/CESER) to support and expand its efforts to document the actions of the public workforce system under the Recovery Act. The purpose of this study was to provide intelligence to state and local workforce organizations on the situation then facing state workforce development agencies and programs, and the steps taken by states (and local workforce investment areas) to meet the challenges of Recovery Act implementation and the economic downturn. It also provides critically important information to policymakers and administrators about the implementation of the Recovery Act workforce development and UI provisions, and identifies potential needs for additional federal and state policies. This information will inform future state decisions in areas of policy formation and program improvements.

This is a comprehensive narrative report on the Public Workforce System’s implementation of the Recovery Act. ETA has already received and Web-posted an interim report which summarizes five surveys of states conducted by NASWA/CESER and the first round of site visits to 20 states: Early Implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Workforce Development and Unemployment Insurance Provisions Interim Report.