CEO Library

In 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded Coffey Consulting to publish the First Responder Workforce Diversity Study, including a final report, program brief, and five site profiles.

The profile is one of five available for the first responder departments and training providers that were selected for the First Responder Workforce Diversity Study, based on both the extent to which their first responder workforce is representative of the local population, and their use of practices that align with the human resources literature as being effective for developing a diverse workforce. Camp Fully Involved (CFI) was selected as a study site based on its unique practices to increase diversity in the firefighting field, with a particular focus on women.

First responder fields—including law enforcement, firefighting, and emergency management services (EMS)—serve a crucial role in the safety and well-being of communities around the country. Public citizens and officials have placed a renewed focus on improving agencies’ relations with their local communities by ensuring that first responders reflect the populations they serve.

The brief focuses on several potentially promising practices identified under the First Responder Workforce Diversity Study that local agencies implement, and which can be implemented with little or no expense beyond agencies’ regular budgets. The practices fall into four major categories: cultivating a culture of diversity, redirecting resources toward a targeted approach, ensuring fairness and equality in the hiring process, and reaching a diverse pipeline through community partnerships.

The profile is one of five available for the first responder departments and training providers that were selected for the First Responder Workforce Diversity Study, based on both the extent to which their first responder workforce is representative of the local population, and their use of practices that align with the human resources literature as being effective for developing a diverse workforce.

The profile is one of five available for the first responder departments and training providers that were selected for the First Responder Workforce Diversity Study, based on both the extent to which their first responder workforce is representative of the local population, and their use of practices that align with the human resources literature as being effective for developing a diverse workforce. The Bay Area Youth EMT (BAY EMT) program was selected to participate in the study because of its unique approach to increasing diversity as a third-party training provider.

The profile is one of five available for the first responder departments and training providers that were selected for the First Responder Workforce Diversity Study, based on both the extent to which their first responder workforce is representative of the local population, and their use of practices that align with the human resources literature as being effective for developing a diverse workforce.

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:

The profile is one of five available for the first responder departments and training providers that were selected for the First Responder Workforce Diversity Study, based on both the extent to which their first responder workforce is representative of the local population, and their use of practices that align with the human resources literature as being effective for developing a diverse workforce. The San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) was selected to participate in the study due to its notable diversity statistics after managing a near decade-long consent decree.

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.

The Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) is intended to provide services to assist in reintegrating homeless veterans into meaningful employment. In May 2014, U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted with Avar Consulting, Inc. to conduct a formative evaluation of the HVRP program.

The report details a study that uses the introductions of California’s Paid Family Care Leave Act (CA-FLI) and New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance (NJ-FLI) to examine the effects of paid-leave laws on labor market outcomes for individuals who are likely to provide care to an elderly parent. A 2012 survey of employees in the United States showed that work leaves related to the health of a family member (parent, spouse, or child) were almost as common as leaves related to caring for a newborn child (Klerman, Daley, and Pozniak, 2014).

The paper examines changes in patterns of work, poverty, and the relationship between work and poverty between 2005 and 2013. It also explores the implications of heterogeneous work-poverty dynamics for the distribution of poverty risk across race and sex groups. The researchers' analyses address three specific objectives. First, they track changes in work and poverty status among householders during the 2005 to 2013 period.

The employer-based system of providing retirement and health benefits is failing too many Americans, including disproportionate numbers of the poorer and more vulnerable members of society. The largely incremental changes made over the last 30 years have not solved the basic problems of access, coverage and adequacy. Accordingly, the researcher who developed the literature review suggests that it is time for a more radical approach. One approach would be to redefine the terms “employer” and “employee” to capture the realities of the 21st century workplace.

The literature review reviews what is known about sector-based training strategies to date, and why they have become so popular with policymakers. It also reviews several major challenges to expanding them while trying to maintain their quality. These challenges include the fact that only workers with strong basic skills and employability are likely to benefit from these strategies; the likely tradeoffs between short- and long-term impacts and between general and more specific training; the difficulties of replicating and scaling the best models; and uncertain future labor demand.

The structure and organization of work are continually changing. Changes may be cyclical, reflecting economic and social conditions, including business cycles and labor market structures. Other changes, often resulting from new technologies, may be unidirectional. Whether or not the changes are temporary or permanent, employment arrangements affect worker exposures to workplace hazards and their ability to address them.

Stagnant wages, growing inequality, and the deterioration of job quality are among the most important challenges facing the U.S. economy today. Although domestic outsourcing – firms’ use of contractors, franchises, and independent contractors – is a potentially important mechanism through which companies reduce compensation and shift economic risk to workers, surprisingly little is known about the extent of this practice and its implications for wages and working conditions.

The minimum wage is one of the most researched areas in labor economics with a vast body of literature that dates back nearly seventy years (Brown 1999). Research proliferated as variation in state minimum wage policies gained steam over the last several decades. However, research, debate and policy has largely ignored the lesser known subminimum wage received by tipped workers (also referred to as the tipped or cash wage). That there are two federal wage floors is unknown to many and the existence of the federal subminimum wage—at $2.13 since 1991—often comes as a bit of a surprise.

The paper describes the New Mexico Pay Equity Initiative, which was instituted by Governor Bill Richardson’s administration over a two year period (2009-2011). The Initiative built on recommendations from an Equal Pay Task Force created by the New Mexico State legislature in 2003, and a subsequent task force created by the governor in 2008.

Family leave provides an employee with a period of time off work to care for a newborn or a sick child, spouse, or parent. The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires that employers provide 12 weeks of family leave to qualifying workers with a newborn or a sick child, spouse, or parent, but that leave is unpaid.

The paper describes a study that explores the ways in which the public workforce system is collaborating with its community college partners to address the training needs of America’s workforce. It also examines how collaborations between One‐Stop Career Centers (One‐Stops) and community colleges can be enhanced to benefit workers, employers, and society at large. Findings are based on what was learned from 15 site visits to pairs of One‐Stops and community colleges. Throughout the report “site” refers to a One‐Stop/ community college pair.

The goal of the report is to place the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008 (EUC08) program (together with its many additions and amendments) into a theoretical and historical context in order to highlight the similarities and differences among similar programs.