CEO Library

This brief provides recommendations for implementing administrative data collection practices that support the research needs of federal departments and agencies. The brief describes the process and feasibility of using administrative data to conduct an implementation study of the National Construction Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) Pilot (NCSP).

This report defines and describes strategies for funders to reach underserved and marginalized communities, as well as incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) principles in international grantmaking. The report provides emerging practices that increase the incorporation of underserved and marginalized communities throughout the grantmaking process, including the preaward and application stages, project design and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

This brief presents findings from the exploratory study to examine the feasibility of implementing a Unemployment Insurance (UI) program in Guam. It identifies factors relevant to UI program implementation in Guam and describes five potential UI program design options, specifying how the factors would work for Guam depending on program design option.

Technical appendix to Exploring Unemployment Insurance (UI) Program Options for Guam: Options Brief. The appendix describes the exploratory study in depth, identifying the research questions, methodology, and limitations as well presents the data analyzed that support the information provided in the brief it supplements.

In 2023, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and commissioned contractor Westat Insight to conduct a study to explore approaches to measure and increase equity in ETA’s discretionary grantmaking programs. This study sought to explore how grantmakers – such as Federal agencies, State and local government agencies, and philanthropic organizations – define, assess, and increase equity in their grantmaking process.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded contractor Westat Insight to conduct the Vulnerable Populations Study to highlight examples of analyses that researchers and policymakers can conduct using publicly available population surveys. This report underscores the value of leveraging publicly available survey data to analyze the changing demographic landscapes of populations impacted by labor policies and programs.

The 2024 Veteran Employment Data Catalog is a document-based catalog of existing datasets that could be used to answer research questions related to veterans’ employment outcomes. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) collaborated with the Veterans’ Employment and Training Services (VETS) to commission Insight Policy Research (now Westat) to identify both public and restricted datasets that align with topic areas derived from VETS’ mission.

The Chief Evaluation Office of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL CEO) is committed to using innovative tools to meet the Department’s research, evaluation, and data analytics needs. In December 2021, DOL CEO commissioned the Westat Insight and American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) study team to explore potential opportunities to use machine learning methods to facilitate the automated data collection of labor-relevant data.

The report synthesizes findings from third-party evaluator (TPE)-conducted implementation evaluations and subsequent interim reports, supplemented by submitted quarterly narrative reports (QNRs) from March 2023. The synthesis aims to provide an overarching description of the first round of SCC (SCC1) grantees’ progress in implementing their workforce development and career pathways programming and highlight promising practices, implementation barriers, and lessons learned across the grantees.

The Navajo Nation Research Brief of the Black Lung Incidence Study identifies the current state of knowledge on black lung disease as it relates to coal mining and residential coal use in the Navajo Nation. It identifies prevalence rates in the U.S. counties that overlap with the Navajo Nation borders, estimates prevalence rates in those counties, and discusses data limitations specific to the Navajo Nation.

The report presents the findings of a literature review ad quantitative analysis conducted under the Black Lung Incidence Study. The study was designed to examine black lung incidence in the United States, exploring both cases and deaths. Within this scope, the study examined whether black lung incidence is higher among specific subpopulations of interest, including miners, mining communities, the Navajo Nation, and residents of Appalachia.

One component of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA’s) mission to “prevent death, illness, and injury from mining and promote safe and healthful workplaces for U.S. miners” is protecting coal miners and coal mining communities from black lung disease (“Mission”). In support of that mission, the literature review expands the U.S.

Graphic presenting evidence-informed strategies to recruit and retain apprentices.

Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) benefit both apprentices and employers. Emerging evidence suggests that apprentices earn more than they did before becoming apprentices1 and employer reporting suggests strong returns on their investment in registered apprenticeship. Employers also report benefiting from a stronger pipeline of skilled workers, less turnover, greater employee engagement and loyalty, and improved firm culture. To realize these benefits, RAPs must make sure apprentices stay in the programs and complete them.

The Evidence Capacity Summary is designed to facilitate conversation and inform actions that staff across agencies may wish to pursue to further strengthen their capacity to use and to produce evidence. The findings presented in the brief summarize insights from 16 agency staff focus groups and the U.S. Department of Labor-wide capacity assessment survey.

The evidence capacity assessment included the 16 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) agencies in the Department’s Strategic Plan. It reflects data collected through a survey of targeted DOL staff, focus groups with selected DOL staff, and a review of selected evidence documents. The research team used a strengths-based approach that recognizes and leverages DOL’s and agencies’ progress and embodies a continuous improvement mindset.

The E2A Tool Kit: Tips for Developing Great Evidence to Action (E2A) Products, produced under the Evidence to Action (E2A) at DOL: Portfolio Project & Process Study, is designed to help research teams plan for and develop effective evidence-to-action research products. While the hope is that the tool kit will be useful for a wider audience, it is written for research contractors who work for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and for DOL staff who review and provide guidance on research contracts.

This guide provides users with a quick overview for launching the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) model. The Worker PLUS User Manual provides two options for launching the model (options 1 and 2) and two options for downloading the American Community Survey (ACS) input files to run model simulations (options A and B). This guide focuses on option 1 for quickly launching the model’s graphical user interface (GUI) in Python and option A for downloading the ACS input files. Users following this quick-start guide do not need to have Python installed to launch the GUI.

The infographic explains how the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) Model can help researchers and policymakers anticipate the benefits and costs of paid leave policies.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and commissioned contractor Summit Consulting, LLC (Summit) to conduct the Black Lung Incidence Study under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

In 2021, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded contractor Westat Insight and their partner American Institutes for Research to conduct the Explorations in Data Innovations project under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies. This use case study was designed to explore options around employing machine learning to create and maintain a public-facing, labor-related data catalog.

This is a companion document to the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation model, or Worker PLUS model, and is part of two supplementary resources on administrative costs. The second supplementary resource is an Excel template, titled “Administrative Cost Excel Template,” which presents a starting template of standard administrative cost categories observed in paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs as a platform to plan, estimate, and test the administrative costs of running a new program. The Excel template is available to users when they download the model.

This is a companion template to the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation model, or Worker PLUS model, and is part of two supplementary resources on administrative costs. It is a starting template of standard administrative cost categories observed in paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs as a platform to plan, estimate, and test the administrative costs of running a new program. The Excel template is available to users when they download the model.

The brief provides a step-by-step guide to performing example simulations using the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) model. With this guide, users should be able to replicate the provided example of model running using either the Python or the R simulation engine, and to check how the simulation results compare against actual program data for existing state programs in California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

In the issue brief, researchers use simulation results from the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) Model to analyze the impacts of moving from the unpaid leave system under the current Family and Medical Leave Act to a system that includes a paid leave program that adopts the program rules of the existing program in California. The population considered consists of individuals who work in the state of Maryland who meet the eligibility rules of the California program, and among them, the low-wage workers who earn no more than $30,000 annually.