About the Brief

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Finding a job after becoming unemployed can be challenging for many individuals. Even as the unemployment rate has decreased during the recovery from the 2007–2008 financial crisis, the average duration of regular unemployment insurance benefits remains high (15.6 weeks as of January 2017). The Department of Labor (DOL) has long sought effective ways to encourage unemployed workers to engage in services that can help them get reemployed. One effective tool for helping unemployed workers find new employment faster and shorten their duration of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefit receipt is the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) program.

The REA program offers mandatory, in-person sessions in which workforce staff complete several activities with participants—assess their eligibility for UI benefits, provide an orientation to the American Job Center and its services, share labor market information, help them develop a reemployment plan, and make referrals to additional services. Claimants who have not yet found a job and continue to receive UI benefits after the first REA session are required to participate in up to two more sessions. Failure to attend these REA sessions may affect continuance of UI benefits. Unfortunately, many individuals who receive the notification letter from the UI agency (UIA) mandating participation in REA do not schedule or attend their REA sessions.

For example, during the first quarter of program operations in 2015, only 43 percent of the UI claimants at Michigan Works! Southwest, who received the Michigan UIA notification letter, scheduled their first session. In 2014, DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research and ideas to explore the potential of using insights from behavioral science to improve outcomes in DOL programs. In this study, the researchers collaborated with the Employment and Training Administration, in a partnership that involved the W.E. Upjohn Institute and Michigan Works! Southwest, to assess whether a series of low-cost emails informed by behavioral science could encourage more UI claimants to schedule, attend, and complete their REA program sessions. Researchers tested this approach in four counties in Michigan from the spring through the early fall of 2015. Results from a randomized controlled trial indicate that the emails were effective. The brief describes the intervention context and design, discusses key findings, and identifies lessons learned from this study.

Key Takeaways

• Simple encouragement emails resulted in a 15 percentage point increase in UI claimants scheduling their first REA session.
• There was a 14 percentage point increase in UI claimants completing the REA program.

Citation

Darling, M., O’Leary, C., Perez‐Johnson, I., Lefkowitz, J., Kline, K., Damerow, B., Eberts, R., Amin, S., Chojnacki, G. (2017). Mathematica. Behavioral Insights Study: Simple Encouragement Emails Increased Take-up of Reemployment Program. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.