CEO Library

The brief highlights the goals of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program and provides an overview of evaluation activities for the four rounds of TAACCCT grants. Using information from grantee documents, third-party evaluation plans, and the solicitations for grant applications (SGAs) from all four rounds of grants, the brief describes grant requirements, proposed evaluation designs, and TAACCCT grant funding for evaluations. This brief concludes with a preview of the national evaluation of the TAACCCT grant program.

The brief provides an overview of the types of Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grants awarded, the geographic distribution of grant funding, and characteristics of the colleges receiving TAACCCT funding from the grants across the four rounds awarded (2011–14). This brief uses information from grantees’ original proposals and supporting documentation and data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to obtain a richer understanding of the types of institutions participating in TAACCCT.

The brief provides an overview of the various approaches the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grantees planned to implement, the industries targeted at the start of their grants, the degrees and certifications they planned to develop, and the types of partnerships grantees would leverage during the grants. These activities are the core of what the grantees intended to do during their grant period.

The brief presents preliminary results on key outcomes and characteristics of grant-funded program participants from the first four years of Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT). The TAACCCT grant program is primarily focused on capacity building and sustainability, with grant funding directed at institution building rather than at tuition assistance for students to help them pay for education and training.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) and commissioned contractor Mathematica and its subcontractors, the Urban Institute and Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program (HVRP) Evaluation.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, administered by the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), seeks to assist U.S. workers who have lost or may lose their jobs as a result of foreign trade. The program provides adversely affected workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, credentials, resources, and support necessary to (re)build skills for future jobs.

In 2013, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor Abt Associates to conduct the Evaluation of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Program. The implementation and impact evaluations aim to describe the implementation and estimate the impact of REA programs in Indiana, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin on outcomes of interest: amount and duration of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, employment, and earnings.

A main goal of the U.S. Unemployment Insurance (UI) program is to provide temporary income support to workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Benefits supply only partial wage replacement and are time-limited, so as to balance providing income support during unemployment and preserving incentives for benefit recipients to return to work. Most UI claimants who begin receiving benefits during non-recessionary periods can collect them for up to 26 weeks.

The brief summarizes a simulation analysis of five different paid family and medical leave model programs based on working programs in three states and a federal proposal, all applied to the national workforce. The analysis simulates worker behavior and estimates how many paid leaves would be taken under each model, the average weekly benefit level for each leave, and the total costs of the benefits paid. The analysis estimates the cost of benefits in dollars and as a share of total payroll for the nation as a whole and across industries and establishments of different sizes.

Analyses show that providing paid sick days under any alternative model policy increases the amount of paid time workers are able to take for medical and family needs, as intended, at reasonable costs to employers, ranging from 0.10 percent to 0.29 percent of payroll according to the generosity of the model. Employers of different sizes and in different industries would experience a range of costs under each model.

The brief explores the distributional impact of three alternative policy models for providing paid sick days taken from actual policies in the states and a federal proposal selected to show a range of generosity of provision. San Francisco was the first U.S. locality to pass paid sick days in 2006. Their Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (PSLO) covers nearly all workers in San Francisco and provides up to five days per year for workers employed in small businesses (under ten employees) and up to nine days per year for workers employed in larger businesses.

Workers who are 55 years old and over are projected to remain the fastest growing segment of working adults in the U.S. through 2022. Health, longevity, education, and attitude are some of the reasons for their continued labor force attachment. In recent years, older workers have also either delayed retirement or re-entered the workforce due to financial losses in the Great Recession. Older workers face different challenges and responsibilities than their younger counterparts.

Welcoming a new child commonly requires working parents to face challenging decisions related to balancing their career obligations with the extensive caregiving responsibilities of a new child. The brief explores the association between paid leave use and the employment stability of a specific group of parents, first-time mothers, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation’s (SIPP) Fertility History Module.

The participation rate of mothers in the labor force has increased significantly over the last four decades with an estimated 71% participating in 2014 compared to 47% in 1975. Similarly, the share of households with mothers of children under the age of 18 as the sole or primary income earner has grown substantially, increasing from 11% in 1960 to 40% in 2011.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) enables employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. However, while FMLA has increased leave-taking among eligible workers, overall effects have been modest, perhaps because much of the workforce is ineligible for FMLA, and many who are eligible are unaware of the law’s benefits and eligibility requirements.

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted with IMPAQ International, LLC and its partners, the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) and Universal Designers and Consultants (UD&C), to measure the accessibility of American Job Centers (AJC) for people with disabilities. The bulk of previous research on AJC accessibility involved case studies or limited surveys focused on specific issues. Prior to this study, there had been no comprehensive survey of AJCs.

Individuals who lose their jobs may have the skills and desire to start their own businesses. Some states have taken action to help unemployed workers create their own jobs by establishing Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) programs, which allow Unemployment Insurance (UI) eligible individuals who meet SEA program requirements to receive a weekly self-employment allowance while they are setting up their businesses. This allowance is equal in amount and duration to regular UI benefits.

The report of the Evaluation of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Program, and as a precursor to an impact study analysis, describes the implementation of the REA program in the four states in which the evaluation study was conducted: Indiana, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin. This report and its analysis support the broader impact evaluation in two distinct ways. Most important, this report describes in detail the REA program as it was implemented across the four participating states during the study period.

Labor force participation and the characteristics of older American workers (aged 55 and over) have changed a great deal since the mid-1930s, reflecting changes in the broader labor force. No longer are men the sole supporters of their families, working in jobs that require physical labor and expecting to fully retire by age 65. During and after World War II, women surged into the labor force. Health and life expectancy have increased, especially for more educated workers.

As the Baby Boomer generation moves toward retirement age, a chief concern facing U.S. policymakers is how to accommodate this demographic shift. For the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other agencies, the workforce dynamics of older workers is of particular concern.

Retirement patterns have changed substantially in the United States in the last 30 years. During the period from 1900 to 1980, there was a continuous decline in the labor force participation of older individuals. However, this trend has reversed since the 1980s. Americans are now retiring later and expect to continue doing so. Recent research suggests a number of significant changes that have increased the labor force participation of older workers. These include the following:

In 2015, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractors Mathematica Policy Research and Social Policy Research Associates to conduct the Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release (LEAP) Program Evaluation. The evaluation aims to examine program implementation at each of the 20 LEAP pilot locations through site visits at each location, phone interviews, focus groups, and analysis of grantees’ quarterly performance reports.

In 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), and funded contractor Mathematica to develop Resources for Quantitative Surveys on Child Labor under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

In 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and funded contractor Abt Associates to conduct the Worker Classification Knowledge Survey. The survey aims to better document workers’ understanding of issues related to job classification, associated rights and benefits, and employer insights on worker classification.

Between the critical ages of 16 and 24, many low-income youth are at risk of becoming disconnected from school and the labor market. Previous research suggests that more than 30 percent of high school dropouts in this age range are unemployed, partly because they lack postsecondary credentials, labor market experience, and other forms of human capital. Low-income and minority youth who obtain a high school degree and enroll in college are less likely than their peers to complete their degree, often lacking the guidance and resources needed to succeed in postsecondary education.