This report presents the findings of a benefit-cost analysis of Job Corps. In a benefit-cost analysis, a dollar value is placed on each program impact. By measuring impacts in dollars, a benefit-cost analysis enables policymakers to compare the diverse benefits of Job Corps with its costs. It provides a way of assessing the relative size of each impact and the cost-effectiveness of the program as a whole.

Our findings suggest that Job Corps is a good investment: the benefits to society exceed the costs of the program by nearly $17,000 per participant (Table 1). The finding that benefits exceed costs holds under a wide range of plausible assumptions and for most groups, including both residential and nonresidential students. It does, however, depend critically on the assumption that the earnings impacts observed during the study do not decline rapidly as participants get older. Observations during the study and evidence from other research suggest that these impacts will indeed persist without rapid decay.