CEO Library

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor the Urban Institute and its partners Mathematica and Social Policy Research Associates to conduct the Evaluating Registered Apprenticeship Initiatives. The Evaluation aims build and share evidence about registered apprenticeship initiatives through evaluating strategies under the Apprenticeship Building America (ABA) grants program, conducting an impact and cost-benefit evaluability assessment of pre-registered apprenticeship prog

The report provides the findings of the implementation of a quasi-experimental design to understand how changing labor market conditions associated with the pandemic affect opioid use.

View Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program Evaluation Addendum to this plan published in March 2024.

The report documents findings from an implementation study, describing how the Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership grantees’ programs were implemented over the full term of the grants, the institutional benefits the grantees anticipated would be sustained after the grants ended, and lessons for current workforce programs. Future reports, to be released in 2021 and 2022, will examine the impact of the four RTW programs on participants’ education and employment outcomes. Findings from this implementation study will be important in interpreting those impact results.

This brief documents findings from the Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership Grant Evaluation, describing how the grantees’ programs were implemented over the full term of the grant, the institutional benefits the grantees anticipated would be sustained after the grants ended, and lessons for current workforce programs. Future reports, to be released in 2021 and 2022, will examine the impact of the four programs on participants’ education and employment outcomes. Findings from this implementation study will be important in interpreting those impact results.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor The Urban Institute to design and conduct an evaluation that examines critical policy issues, lessons learned, and challenges states faced administering Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs during the Great Recession that began in 2007 and the economic recovery that followed.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor The Urban Institute to design and conduct an evaluation that examines critical policy issues, lessons learned, and challenges states faced administering Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs during the Great Recession that began in 2007 and the economic recovery that followed. Additionally, the opportunity to study these topics as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic was incorporated into the study.

The toolkit provides a basic overview of evaluation elements for program management purposes. It also draws from and provides information about other generally accepted and available evaluation resources that may be useful as an entry point for state Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) programs that may not make full use of evaluations in program planning or implementation or that may need additional evaluation reference to expand their evaluation activities.

In 2021, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment Training Administration (ETA) and funded the Urban Institute and its partner Capital Research Corporation to conduct the Older Workers Study.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor The Urban Institute to design and conduct an evaluation that examines critical policy issues, lessons learned, and challenges states faced administering Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs during the Great Recession that began in 2007 and the economic recovery that followed. 

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been unprecedented changes in employment for America’s workforce. Many businesses ceased or scaled back operations and many state governments issued stay-at-home orders. Using key labor force statistics from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) researchers with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) sought to provide insight into the recent changes.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been unprecedented changes in employment for America’s workforce. Many businesses ceased or scaled back operations and many state governments issued stay-at-home orders. Using key labor force statistics from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), researchers with the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) sought to provide insight into the recent changes.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been unprecedented changes in employment for America’s workforce. Many businesses ceased or scaled back operations and many state governments issued stay-at-home orders. Using key labor force statistics from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) researchers with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) sought to provide insight into the recent changes.

The Evaluation of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Program aimed to estimate the impact of the U.S. Department of Labor’s REA program, which supported states to address the reemployment needs of Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants and to prevent and detect UI improper payments. The evaluation included both an implementation study and an impact study. The report presents the results of the impact study.

The body of the Evaluation of Impacts of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Program Impact Report is deliberately brief. This separate appendix volume provides additional detail. Appendix A develops a formal economic theory of REA-like programs. Appendix B provides additional detail on the econometric specification and other estimation issues.

The Evaluation of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Program was designed to estimate the impact of the REA program on Unemployment Insurance (UI) duration (the length of time claimants spent on UI, in weeks), employment, and earnings. The evaluation was conducted in four states—Indiana, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin— and included both an implementation study and a large impact study. The brief summarizes the results of the impact study, which randomly assigned more than a quarter of a million UI claimants in a multi-armed design over a one-year period.

The brief describes methodological lessons from Evaluation of the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Program impact study that may inform future evaluations of reemployment interventions.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractors Mathematica Policy Research with Social Policy Research Associates and the Council of State Governments Justice Center to conduct the Pathway Home Reentry Evaluation. The study aims to develop design options for an impact and implementation evaluation to assess the feasibility of conducting an impact evaluation and examine the implementation of the Pathway Home Reentry Grant program.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Research Portfolio Project.

In 2020, Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Apprenticeship (OA) and the Office of Policy Development and Research (OPDR) within the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractors Urban Institute and Mathematica to conduct the State Apprenticeship Capacity Assessment under the Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio of studies.

The Self-Employment Training (SET) pilot program was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to test strategies for supporting dislocated workers interested in starting their own businesses. Unemployed and underemployed workers who proposed businesses in their fields of expertise were eligible to participate. SET participants received free access to 12 months of case management, customized training and technical assistance, and up to $1,000 in seed capital microgrant funds for business start-up costs.

The Self-Employment Training (SET) pilot program served unemployed and underemployed workers who proposed businesses in their fields of expertise. Participants had access to 12 months of case management services, customized training and technical assistance, and seed capital microgrants of up to $1,000. In two sites, SET participants who received unemployment insurance (UI) benefits could also get waivers exempting them from work search requirements.

The Self-Employment Training (SET) pilot program served unemployed and underemployed workers who proposed businesses in their fields of expertise. Participants had access to 12 months of case management services, customized training and technical assistance, and seed capital microgrants of up to $1,000. In two sites, SET participants who received unemployment insurance (UI) benefits could also get waivers exempting them from work search requirements.

Appendices to the Self-Employment Training (SET) Pilot Program Evaluation Final Impact Report that include design and implementation of the set pilot program, impact study methodology, descriptive tables of study enrollee characteristics and site-level implementation measures, tables of results from main the impact analysis, and tables of results from sensitivity analyses for primary impact measures.

As of January 2017, 1.9 million people remained in the ranks of the long-term unemployed (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017). Starting a business, or self-employment, may offer a path for some of these people to return to work. The Self-Employment Training (SET) pilot program, which operated from 2013–2017, was funded by the Employment Training Administration (ETA) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to test and evaluate strategies to support dislocated workers who wanted to start their own businesses.