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In 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $107 million in four-year grants to 24 applicants for the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) program. At its core, the YCC program was designed to strengthen America’s talent pipeline by putting high school students on a pathway to complete postsecondary education, obtain industry-recognized credentials, and secure a job in middle- to high-skilled fields that often rely on foreign workers.

The technical appendix to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Implementation Study that focused on the core workforce programs authorized under WIOA Title I (Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth Services) and Title III (Employment Services) and examined integration with programs under Titles II (Adult Education and Family Literacy) and IV (Vocational Rehabilitation), and other partners.

In an effort to evaluate the Workforce Online Learning Information Portal (WOLIP) project in four states and to learn more about how best to implement online learning in state-driven workforce investment systems, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) funded the Rutgers University Center for Women and Work to conduct a formative evaluation of the WOLIP demonstration project and to provide technical assistance. The report summarizes the findings and observations from the evaluation research, which concluded September 2011.

The report systematically documents and analyzes the use of technology-based learning (TBL) across the entire network of Job Corps centers, reporting on the TBL implementation process, the challenges TBL faced during implementation, and the best practices for TBL that instructors, managers, and directors identified.

The report, the second of the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) project’s implementation study, examines the evolution of YCC program implementation, and focuses on the third and fourth years of the grant, when grant funding was scheduled to end. It also examines grantee approaches to sustainability of YCC activities and services as they approached the end of grant funding.

In July 2012, Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas, received a grant totaling $1.5 million to develop and implement the water technologies training program for residents of the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex (KJCC) in Topeka. The goal of the training program was to increase incarcerated youth’s employment and earnings potential and reduce their recidivism rates after release from the correctional facility. Obtaining good job placements in high-demand occupations could help youth develop economic stability and, ultimately, self sufficiency.

Youth from low-income neighborhoods are at risk of poor outcomes throughout their lives. Many will drop out of school, which can lead to economic hardship and a greater chance of getting involved in the criminal justice system—making their lives even more difficult.

In 2014, law enforcement agencies made about 1 million juvenile arrests, each of which generated a record. Having a juvenile record reduces a youth’s prospects in life by limiting employment, educational, and housing opportunities long after the incident’s resolution. Yet a juvenile record does not have to permanently restrict a youth’s opportunities. Youth with juvenile records can reduce or completely bar public access to their records by expunging or sealing them.

In 2014, law enforcement agencies in the United States made nearly 1 million juvenile arrests. Roughly half of the cases formally processed resulted in youth being adjudicated delinquent. Youth with convictions face lasting collateral consequences such as decreased access to education, employment opportunities, and certain social welfare benefits, like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), aside from more direct consequences like fines, fees, or imprisonment. Recognizing this, the U.S.

Using data collected throughout the implementation of the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) grant, the final report describes how grantees recruited employer partners and maintained employer and workforce agency partnerships; the services and activities partners provided; and plans for sustaining partnerships after the grant ended. The report draws on a mix of quantitative and qualitative data from three sources that bring together information at different time points. Appendix B provides details on each of these data collection efforts relevant to this report.

To make good decisions about investing in themselves—in the form of additional education or training—American workers need pertinent, reliable information on how the skills developed in a particular program translate into job opportunities and earnings potential. To provide this kind of information to the public, some states have created websites (termed scorecards) that allow users to browse education and training opportunities. These sites may provide information about the organizations offering education and training programs, program cost, and other information.

In an effort to spur regional economic growth, five Federal agencies collaborated to award grants in 2011 and 2012 to 30 self-identified regional innovation clusters focused on specific high-growth sectors through the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge (JIAC) and Advanced Manufacturing JIAC (AM-JIAC) initiatives. Participating agencies included the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA); U.S.

The brief describes the role and activities of One-Stop Operators in 40 comprehensive American Job Centers (AJCs). It provides an overview of the types of entities that served as Operators, the roles that Operators played, common supervision models, and the key activities of AJC managers in day-to-day center operations. It concludes with a description of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) One-Stop Operator requirements and identifies some general concerns raised about these changes as local areas prepared for their implementation.

To systematically document key characteristics and features of American Job Centers (AJCs), Mathematica and its partners—Social Policy Research Associates, The George Washington University, and Capital Research Corporation—conducted the America Job Centers’ Institutional Analysis for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

The brief discusses key features and experiences of 12 America Job Centers (AJCs) in the America Job Centers Institutional Analysis study that were located in rural areas. It focuses on AJCs as the unit of service delivery, which is a narrower focus than prior studies of the rural workforce system as a whole. Therefore, the findings offer insight into frontline service delivery and system-wide planning in addition to an update on the persistence of previously-identified challenges in rural service delivery.

The brief describes how 40 comprehensive American Job Centers (AJCs) selected to participate in the Institutional Analysis of AJCs shared resources. It opens by reviewing resource sharing requirements under Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and then outlines the extent to which the study AJCs shared resources at the time of the study's data collection.

The brief presents an overview of key institutional features of the AJC service delivery system across the country that shape day-to-day operations and customer experiences. To do this, researchers identify common patterns and variations in (1) administrative One-Stop Operator structure and AJC management, (2) AJC partner programs and staffing, (3) funding and resource sharing, (4) data systems and sharing, and (5) AJC services.

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.

The nature of the employer-employee relationship is drastically changing in the United States, with lead employers employing fewer workers directly and instead relying on intermediaries and contracting firms for providing labor services. In the paper researchers investigate the incidence and effects of outsourcing labor service jobs in food, cleaning, security and logistics (FCSL) to business service firms. They first provide long time series using Census and ACS data documenting large movements of FCSL jobs to business service firms, with an accelerating trend since the Great Recession.

The report examines expansions to the unemployment compensation system that followed the onset of the Great Recession. Before the recession, eligible workers losing a job could collect up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in most states. Near the end of 2009, up to 99 weeks were available in high-unemployment states through the UI program, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008 (EUC08) program, and the Extended Benefits (EB) program. The researchers' main analysis used administrative and survey data on 2,122 recipients in 12 states.

For many Americans, the recession that began in 2007 led not only to job loss, but also to losing health insurance for themselves and their families. Three-quarters of nonelderly Americans who have health insurance receive coverage through an employer. In most cases, the employer pays for a relatively large portion of the cost of the coverage. Given the predominance of health insurance that is sponsored and subsidized by employers, the loss of a job is often accompanied by the loss of health care coverage.

To understand the connections between Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) grants and state efforts to develop Consumer Report Card Systems (CRCSs), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) contracted with IMPAQ International, LLC (IMPAQ) to conduct the Feasibility of Using WDQI and Eligible Training Provider Lists (ETPLs) Data for Consumer Reports project. The report has three main objectives:

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.