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Reentering the community is a challenging transition for justice-involved individuals who often face numerous barriers in restarting their lives outside of jail. It is similarly challenging for service providers who aid them during this transition—recently released individuals become difficult to contact once outside, are spread over a larger geographic area, and face competing demands on their time.

Career pathways approaches to workforce development offer articulated education and training steps between occupations in an industry sector, combined with support services, to enable individuals to enter and exit at various levels and to advance over time to higher skills, recognized credentials, and better jobs with higher pay. The U.S.

To inform future research on career pathways approaches, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Abt Associates to understand the state of the field and develop evaluation design options. Abt conducted knowledge development by scanning career pathways studies and initiatives implemented as of February 2017 and consulting with 44 experts, then created a menu of evaluation design options to answer priority research questions. The brief gives a short overview of the project’s four reports.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requires the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to “conduct a multistate study to develop, implement, and build upon career advancement models and practices for low-wage healthcare providers or providers of early education and child care” (29 U.S. Code § 3224(b)(4)(I)).

Appendix to the Career Pathways Evaluation Design Options Report that provides evaluation and data source exhibits.

Synthesis Matrix to the Career Pathways Research and Evaluation Synthesis Report.

The rapid rise of career pathways strategies nationally, including an emphasis on them in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), creates a critical need for sound evidence that shows what works well, why, under what circumstances and for whom. The WIOA legislation requires the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to “conduct a multistate study to develop, implement, and build upon career advancement models and practices for low-wage health care providers or providers of early education and child care” (29 U.S. Code § 3224(b)(4)(I)).

Synthesis Matrix to the Career Pathways Implementation Synthesis Report.

The rapid rise of career pathways strategies, including an emphasis on them in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), creates a need for more evidence on this approach. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Abt Associates to conduct the Career Pathways Design Study, to develop evaluation design options that could address critical gaps in knowledge related to the approach, implementation, and success of career pathways strategies generally, and in early care and education (ECE) specifically.

Job Corps, a program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA), is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive residential education and job training program for at-risk youth. Originally established by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the program currently operates under the provisions of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which was enacted in 2014. Studies of Job Corps have found promising results especially for older youth (Schochet et al. 2001).

Job Corps, a program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA), is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive residential education and job training program for at-risk youth. Originally established by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the program currently operates under the provisions of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which Congress enacted in 2014.

As economic conditions change and the research literature evolves, there is a need to assess current best practices for serving today’s youth and consider how they could inform the Job Corps program.

It has been a generation since the last systematic examination of Native socio-economic well-being. Since then, several important developments have proliferated across Indian country, including Indian gaming, energy projects, expanded social and health services, new forms of tribal governance, and the advent of tribal colleges.

Research indicates that individuals of different races, ethnic backgrounds, and class origins tend to differ in their unemployment rates. We know less, however, about whether these differences result from the different groups’ unequal risks of entering or exiting unemployment, and even less about how economic fluctuations moderate the ethnoracial and class-origin gaps in the long term risks of transitioning into and out of unemployment.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and funded contractor Mathematica to conduct the OFCCP Compliance Officer Training Study. OFCCP protects workers employed by federal contractors and promotes equal employment opportunities. Well-trained Compliance Officers (COs) who understand the importance of OFCCP’s mission and the complexity of the work are critical to its ability to evaluate contractor compliance and investigate complaints of discrimination appropriately.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor Abt Associates to conduct the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) Evidence Building and Implementation Study. This project's objectives are to work with DOL to develop strategies to support the evidence requirements in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 that relate to the RESEA.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the Comparing Job Training Impact Estimates using Survey and Administrative Data study under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

In 2015, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor 2M Research Services to conduct the Urban Employment for Youth and Young Adults Demonstration Grants Implementation Evaluation. The implementation study aims to document how the seven Urban Youth Employment Demonstration grantee communities implemented their programs, describe perceived challenges and successes, and identify emerging lessons.

The report includes findings from a 2-year implementation study of the Urban Employment Demonstration Grants for Youth and Young Adults, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). In 2015, DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) awarded seven urban cities with 2-year grants to develop projects to address the workforce needs of disconnected youth and young adults (ages 16–29) in U.S.

The issue brief series explores emerging findings from a 2-year implementation study of the Urban Employment Demonstration Grants for Youth and Young Adults, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office (CEO). In 2015, DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) awarded seven urban cities with 2-year grants to develop projects to address the workforce needs of disconnected youth and young adults (ages 16–29) in U.S. cities and communities experiencing high unemployment, crime, and poverty rates, and low high school graduation rates.

The purpose of the report is to explore implementation of Youth CareerConnect (YCC) about two years after funding began. This report draws information from five sources: (1) a grantee survey describing YCC as it was implemented in one of its schools, (2) grantees’ quarterly progress report narratives, (3) visits to 10 grantees, (4) YCC’s Participant Tracking System, and (5) a survey of parents and students in YCC in 8 of the grantees visited.

A key challenge facing policymakers and program administrators is how to develop effective strategies to help Americans facing economic challenges, particularly the long-term unemployed, to succeed in the labor market. During the deep recession of 2008-2009, an unprecedented number of workers lost their jobs and many remained under- or unemployed, even as the economy recovered.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in collaboration with the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), contracted with IMPAQ International, LLC (IMPAQ), to investigate the public workforce system’s involvement in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Ticket to Work (TTW) program. The TTW program is designed to reduce or eliminate reliance on SSA disability benefits by increasing beneficiaries’ financial independence.

In 2014, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration and funded contractor MDRC to conduct An Introduction to the World of Work: A Study of the Implementation and Impacts of New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program. The study aims to examine both the implementation of New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and its effects on participants’ education, employment, and earnings outcomes.

The report examines the impacts of the nation’s largest summer youth jobs program — New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) — on young people’s education, employment, and earnings. The evaluation, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and a private foundation, includes a sample of nearly 265,000 young people who applied to SYEP for the first time between 2006 and 2010. The analysis uses an experimental design that relies on SYEP’s randomized lottery application system.