CEO Library

The Implementation Study Design report describes the implementation study of both the Apprenticeship Building America (ABA) category 2 Expansion Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) Opportunities for Youth ABA grants and the category 3 Ensuring Equitable RAP Pathways through Pre-Apprenticeship Leading to RAP Enrollment and Equity Partnerships grants. The design report begins with background on the ABA grants, with a particular focus on the Category 2 and 3 grants. It describes the key features of a registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship program.

In 2019, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI) to conduct the Behavioral Interventions to Improve Work Search Among Unemployment Insurance Claimants project. The unemployment insurance (UI) program requires claimants to be actively looking for work while they receive benefits to encourage a rapid return to work.

The report of impact evaluations aimed to assess the effectiveness of behaviorally-informed communications – such as a pop-up alert and emails – in increasing unemployment insurance (UI) claimants’ compliance with work search requirements.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) to fund contractor Abt Associates to conduct the Stay at Work/Return to Work (SAW/RTW) Models and Strategy Study. The study aims to document and expand the knowledge base of SAW/RTW strategies and identify promising models and best practices. The final study also includes evaluation design options, which could be implemented to build on and add to the evidence produced.

The brief provides a summary of information about the Stay at Work/Return to Work (SAW/RTW) Models and Strategy Study, the process, and findings from each study report.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report presents five options for new research to build evidence about the target populations for SAW/RTW and to test the effects of interventions on employment outcomes.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report analyzes public data to estimate the characteristics of the SAW/RTW target population and examine pathways from illness/injury to federal disability benefits as a way to identify opportunities for intervention.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report includes a review of evidence published between 2008 and 2018 on the effects of SAW/RTW or related programs on employment and the receipt of federal disability benefits.

Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) programs intend to help a worker who experiences an illness or injury to remain at work, or if the worker has left the labor force, to return as soon as medically possible. The report describes programs that were operating in the U.S. in 2018.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) workforce system serves veterans both through the dedicated Jobs for Veterans State Grants (JVSG) program, as well as through resources available to the broader population—most notably the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Adult and Dislocated Worker programs and the Wagner-Peyser Employment Services (ES).

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) makes major investments in employment and training services to help improve veterans’ labor market outcomes. These investments include services available only to veterans through the Jobs for Veterans State Grants program (JVSG), as well as priority of service to workforce programs available to the broader population, most notably through the Wagner-Peyser Employment Service and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Adult and Dislocated Worker programs.

As part of its mission to combat child labor, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) provides grants to support the work of organizations around the world that implement projects to keep children out of the child labor (referred to as OCFT grantees). Some OCFT grantees gather data to estimate, both before and after project implementation, the prevalence of child labor in the areas that they serve.

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)).

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

The Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a study to explore potential research designs for determining the impact of the participant assistance program administered by the Office of Outreach, Education, and Assistance (OEA) within DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).

The report provides an overview of an approach for evaluating the cooperative relationship between the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and community-based organizations (CBOs). The current research effort began with a review of documents provided by the OFCCP; a followup conference call with members of the OFCCP’s national office and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) revealed CBOs to be a critical part of OFCCP’s mission, enhancing their ability to reach their organizational goals.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) agency responsible for promoting safe and healthful working conditions. Under the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act, OSHA is authorized to conduct inspections of worksites to determine whether employers are compliant with workplace safety and health standards. The majority of OSHA inspections are programmed inspections, where the agency selects and targets establishments based on a number of criteria, including injury/illness rates, citation history, or random selection.