CEO Library

This spotlight brief describes technology barriers to accessing the unemployment insurance (UI) program that Navigator staff in New Mexico and Pennsylvania reported some claimants and potential claimants face, especially those who were older (ages 55+), had low incomes, or lived in a rural area. The brief then describes how UI Navigators in both states helped to remove those barriers by providing in-person assistance, technology equipment, and internet access so individuals with technology barriers can access the UI program. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S.

This spotlight brief describes outreach and engagement strategies that UI Navigators reported using in Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to share information about the UI program and UI Navigation services with underrepresented groups and to address several barriers to UI program access. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office, that explores the implementation of Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator Grants, which seven states received in 2022.

This spotlight brief highlights approaches used by three of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator grantees, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, to fill gaps in face-to-face UI services for historically underserved populations, including older adults, rural residents, and potential claimants from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S.

This spotlight brief highlights common barriers faced by migrant and seasonal farmworkers to receiving unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and how UI Navigators in Wisconsin and New Mexico help to remove these barriers. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office, that explores the implementation of Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator Grants, which seven states received in 2022.

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 report provides analysis of intermediate impacts on participation in and completion of TechHire and Strengthening Working Families Initiative (SWFI) programs training, receipt of credentials, and use of child care and other services, as well as on longer-term outcomes such as employment and earnings, advancement and job quality, and other, exploratory outcomes such as overall well-being, health, and housing status at about 2 years following random assignment. 

The report presents results from the America’s Promise outcomes and impact analysis and draws on findings from the previously completed implementation study to provide context for the presented results (English et al. 2022a). Chapter 1 provides detailed information on the background for the evaluation and the guiding research questions for the outcomes and impact studies.

The America’s Promise job-driven grants were designed to develop and expand regional partnerships to provide sectoral training programs that address the immediate needs of the regional labor market. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office contracted with Mathematica and its partner, Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct an evaluation of the America’s Promise grants including an implementation study and an impact study.

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.

The report reviews the latest studies, reports, and documents on Registered Apprenticeship programs to help understand gaps in apprenticeship knowledge. It discusses what we know about the benefits of apprenticeship for employers, workers, and society; how the federal government has been investing in the apprenticeship system; and what we have learned from state efforts to expand apprenticeship. The report also reviews the evidence for what specific types of Registered Apprenticeship programs work and for whom.

The report provides a snapshot of how Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) grantees adapted or expanded strategies to serve older workers in response to challenges faced during the pandemic. Strategies include (1) adopting new recruitment outreach, intake, and engagement activities; (2) promoting digital access and technology loaner programs; (3) providing training remotely; (4) adopting new host agency and employer strategies; and (5) implementing staffing strategies to support SCSEP participants’ needs.

The purpose of the Older Workers Implementation and Descriptive Study is to build evidence about the implementation of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) and other U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) workforce programs serving older workers to inform the continuous improvement of SCSEP. To inform evaluation activities, the report reviews the literature and identifies the state of the evidence on workforce programs, including those that serve older workers and populations with similar employment barriers.

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.

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.

Appendices to the Self-Employment Training (SET) Pilot Program Evaluation Final Implementation Report that include SET program design, evaluation, findings from analysis of set baseline application, findings from analysis of MIS data, analysis of survey and interview data on implementation, and analysis of interview data on participant perspectives on SET.

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.

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.

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.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor Mathematica Policy Research to conduct Data on Earnings: A Review of Resources for Research and Comparing Job Training Impact Estimates Using Survey and Administrative Data under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies. The descriptive analyses aim to review potential opportunities and implications of using different

With a growing need for a more skilled workforce, providing effective and efficient employment and training services is an important national priority. First authorized under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) and then reauthorized in 2014 under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the Adult and Dislocated Worker programs are two of the nation’s largest publicly funded programs providing employment and training services.

Technical Supplement to the Providing Public Workforce Services to Job Seekers: 30-Month Impact Findings on the WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs Final Report that provides details of the study’s methodological approach, sensitivity analysis of impact estimates, detailed tables of survey means and impacts for all customers, detailed tables of survey means and impacts for adults, detailed tables of survey means and impacts for dislo

The report documents and explores the strengths and drawbacks of data sources commonly used to produce impact estimates for evaluations of workforce development programs. Specifically, researchers use information from the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs Gold Standard Evaluation to examine three data sources used to evaluate the impacts of access to services provided by the public workforce system’s Adult and Dislocated Worker programs, two of the largest, publicly-funded workforce development programs in the nation.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the Comparing Job Training Impact Estimates using Survey and Administrative Data study under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies.

The literature review reviews what is known about sector-based training strategies to date, and why they have become so popular with policymakers. It also reviews several major challenges to expanding them while trying to maintain their quality. These challenges include the fact that only workers with strong basic skills and employability are likely to benefit from these strategies; the likely tradeoffs between short- and long-term impacts and between general and more specific training; the difficulties of replicating and scaling the best models; and uncertain future labor demand.