About the Report

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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 (UI) benefits remains high (15.6 weeks as of January 2017). In response, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) helps UI claimants find, apply for, and obtain new employment. 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 UI benefit receipt, is the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) program. The REA program offers mandatory, in-person sessions, during 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. (The REA program was replaced in 2015 with the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment program, which increased funding to directly provide reemployment services in addition to the usual REA activities). Given the strong incentives to attend REA sessions, we might expect attendance rates to be high. However, many individuals who are selected to participate in this mandatory program do not schedule or attend their REA sessions. For example, in the first three months of the Michigan Works! Southwest REA program, which began operating in January 2015, only 43 percent of claimants who were required to participate in the REA program scheduled their first session. Many other programs experience similar issues. Programs that have been shown to work, like the REA program, often still struggle to attract participants.

Behavioral science can help us make sense of this perplexing behavior. Despite the benefits of REA participation, many barriers may limit claimants’ engagement with the program. To schedule the session, for example, claimants must read a notification letter, understand its contents, and carry out its instructions. Even though each of these steps is simple in principle, a claimant may easily overlook or ignore one of them. Fortunately, the growing body of behavioral research can help programs communicate more effectively to their participants, which in turn can increase participant engagement. Improved communications can make it more likely that a program participant reads or understands a message.

A friendly tone can establish trust. Simple step-by-step instructions can help people comply with program requirements. In 2014, the DOL Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research and ideas to examine the effects of behavioral interventions in DOL programs. DOL was especially interested in testing behavioral interventions that would allow for rapid evaluation and analysis of short-term outcomes and would be easy to replicate and/or scale if found to be effective. The DOL Behavioral Interventions (DOL-BI) team collaborated with the Employment and Training Administration, in a partnership involving the W.E. Upjohn Institute and Michigan Works! Southwest, to assess whether a series of low-cost, behaviorally informed messages could encourage more UI claimants to schedule, attend, and complete their REA sessions. Tests yielded strong positive results. The recipients of the messages were 15 percentage points more likely to schedule their first REA session and 14 percentage points more likely to complete the REA program.

The report presents the findings on the effects of emails designed to encourage UI claimants to (1) schedule and attend REA sessions with Michigan Works! Southwest and (2) persist in efforts that will help them succeed in their job search efforts following REA program completion.

Research Questions

• Did the emails improve the initial response/scheduling rate for the UIA notification letter relative to the status quo?
• Did the emails improve the attendance rate for the REA sessions?
• Did the emails improve the completion rate for the REA program?
• Did the effects of the emails substantially differ across key subgroups?

Key Takeaways

• Low-cost behaviorally informed emails increased the proportion of UI claimants who participated in the first REA session by 15 percentage points and increased participation in remaining sessions.
• The emails increased the proportion of UI claimants who completed the REA program by 14 percentage points.
• No statistically significant variation in impacts based on the age and education levels of participants was found.

Citation

Darling, M., Damerow, B., O’Leary, C., Eberts, R., Perez‐Johnson, I., Amin, S., Lefkowitz, J., Chojnacki, G., Kline, K. (2017). Mathematica. Using Behavioral Insights to Improve Take-Up of a Reemployment Program: Trial Design and Findings. 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.