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This brief documents findings from the Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership Grant Evaluation, describing how the grantees’ programs were implemented over the full term of the grant, the institutional benefits the grantees anticipated would be sustained after the grants ended, and lessons for current workforce programs. Future reports, to be released in 2021 and 2022, will examine the impact of the four programs on participants’ education and employment outcomes. Findings from this implementation study will be important in interpreting those impact results.

Key Takeaways

• When the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) developed the RTW grant program in 2014, U.S. unemployment rates, and in particular long-term unemployment rates, remained high after the Great Recession of 2007- 2009. However, economic conditions improved sharply over the four-year term of the grants (2015-2019), with unemployment rates dropping steadily to among the lowest ever recorded.
• Reflecting the RTW grant program’s focus on the long-term unemployed, across all four grantees, more than 80 percent of study members were unemployed when they entered the study. About 30 percent of all study members were unemployed for a year or more.
• The four grantee programs all provided activities and services consistent with DOL's Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA, DOL/ETA 2014) for the RTW program, including one-on-one staff assistance, occupational training, employment readiness activities (that could include help with a resume, interviewing skills, and networking skills), and work-based training (unpaid internships, paid internships, or on-the job training).
• RTW grantee programs attempted to increase the employment, with higher earnings, of a key population: the long-term unemployed, in particular the long-term unemployed during a deep recession. Perhaps due to details of the evaluation design, due to a rapidly improving labor market, or due to the program design and services, this evaluation did not detect that the RTW programs had such impacts.

Citation

Herr, J.L., Klerman, J.A., Martinson, K., Copson, E. (2022). Abt Associates. Providing Employment Services to the Long-Term Unemployed: Insights on Program Impact from the Ready to Work Partnership Grant Evaluation. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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This study was sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, Division of Research and Evaluation, and was produced outside of CEO’s standard research development process.