CEO Library

The literature review summarizes evidence on three topics related to the intersection of employment and the opioid crisis: (1) effective and promising practices for providing employment services to people with opioid use disorder; (2) employer best practices for preventing negative effects of opioid use disorder in the workplace and creating recovery-friendly workplaces; and (3) key considerations for developing the health care workforce that is addressing the opioid crisis.

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 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Women’s Bureau and funded contractor Urban Institute to conduct the Descriptive Study of the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Grants under the Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio of studies. The descriptive study aimed to understand how WANTO grantees provided technical assistance, supportive services, and training opportunities to help women access nontraditional jobs.

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.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor Urban Institute and its partner the Capital Research Corporation to conduct the Implementation Evaluation of the Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grants (YARG) under the Apprenticeship Evidence-Building Portfolio of studies.

The literature review summarizes key challenges and strategies of states operating unemployment insurance (UI) programs during the Great Recession and its aftermath. Except when noted otherwise, “states” is used to refer to the 53 UI jurisdictions in the United States. This includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is based on a targeted literature review for 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 was enacted in 2014. Studies of Job Corps have found promising results especially for older youth (Schochet et al. 2001).

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.

In 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and funded Summit Consulting and the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College to conduct An Analysis of Retirement Models to Improve Portability and Coverage. The literature, policy, and proposal review aims to summarize what is known about the current employer-based voluntary retirement system in the United States and explore a wide set of available options.

The report examines the employer-based voluntary retirement system and explores a variety of potential changes through a three-part analysis:

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor Mathematica to conduct the National Health Emergency (NHE) Demonstration Grants to Address the Opioid Crisis: Implementation Evaluation.

This study includes a systematic review of existing evidence on the intersection of the opioid epidemic and workers’ compensation programs administered by public and private payers. The study will analyze existing evidence and identify innovative interventions and initiatives that may be relevant to the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) client/customer population, and will develop research and evaluation design options for generating new evidence in the field.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has contracted with IMPAQ International and ideas to learn about the customer experience in American Job Centers (AJCs), and to identify ways to improve that experience. Developing an understanding about how job seekers and employer customers perceive their AJC experience, and then maximizing what makes a positive experience, should lead to improved outcomes in employment and other areas. As part of this exploratory study, the research team conducted a literature scan in fall 2015 on related key topics.

The state-Federal system of Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs has existed for 80 years. The programs in the states are financed by employer payroll taxes paid into state trust fund accounts maintained at the U.S. Treasury. These accounts are the source for benefit payments made to eligible unemployed workers.

In 2018, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded Mathematica Policy Research to conduct Data on Earnings: A Review of Resources for Research under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies. This secondary data review describes data sources on wages and earnings that may be used by researchers who wish to incorporate reports of earned income in their analyses but original data collection is not feasible.

As investors increasingly consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when selecting and managing investments, questions about ESG’s relevance to retirement investing have grown commensurately. With this growth comes greater interest to understand if and to what extent ESG investing might affect American workers' retirement prospects.

To better understand the efficiency and practicality of the State Exchange on Employment and Disability (SEED) initiative, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in collaboration with the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), conducted a formative evaluation.

Researchers conducted a scan of the implementation science literature. Implementation science is the scientific study of methods that encourage the systematic integration of evidenced-based practices and research knowledge into policy and practice (Eccles & Mittman, 2006).

Worker moral hazard has been shown in some empirical studies to influence workers’ compensation insurance claims patterns. According to moral hazard theory, temporary help services workers would be expected to file a greater number of spurious claims than traditional, directly-hired employees as a result of greater safety information asymmetry between staffing agencies and the temporary help services workers they place in third party workplaces than between employers and their directly-hired employees.

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.

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 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).

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 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.