MDRC released a report discussing how Career Academics can build college and career exploration programs. MDRC and Bloom Associates developed and piloted a program to help Career Academics, a popular high school reform, build college and career exploration programs for their students. This report presents three key findings and the lessons learned from its implementation in 18 academies in California, Florida, and Georgia.

In 2012, the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) launched a major research initiative designed to enhance understanding of how policies and programs can build economic self-sufficiency by increasing employment, wages, labor market skills, and earnings. It is one of three such integrated research projects that extend over three-year periods with a range of activities that are focused on topics related to three themes identified by IRP as key trends in poverty and policy: Economic Self-Sufficiency, Family Change and Poverty, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty.

WorkforceOne held a Webinar presentation walking through the CareerOneStop online center. CareerOneStop is a suite of tools to help job seekers explore careers, investigate salary and benefit information, research education and training opportunities, plan a job search and browse job sites, write and improve resumes and cover letters, prepare for a job interview, and search for jobs. In addition, the CareerOneStop Web site provides links to workforce and labor market information Web sites that contain local information resources and tools.

This toolkit is a step-by-step guide to designing and implementing employee learning and career advancement projects for frontline workers. Created by Jobs for the Future, the toolkit is a guidebook for job-site practitioners of workforce development: human resources managers, staff developers, and others responsible for employee learning through union-based programs, community colleges, technical schools, and community-based organizations. The toolkit is organized to serve newcomers to work-based earning and those with prior experience but seeking to learn more. It is also a resource for those seeking effective models on specific topics, such as designing curricula based on work objectives or training supervisors to coach or mentor frontline workers. While these resources and examples originate in health care, they are readily adaptable to other work settings and occupations.

The United States Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense's Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, launched the 2013 Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) database, a recruitment resource for employers seeking a diverse workforce that includes employees with disabilities. The database contains profiles of postsecondary students and recent graduates with disabilities, including veterans, representing a wide variety of academic backgrounds and degree levels. More than 20 federal government agencies regularly utilize the WRP as a recruiting source, with more than 6,500 students obtaining federal employment since 1995.

A Pew Research Center Report issued on November 5, 2012, found that young adults set records for high-school and college degrees. Record shares of young adults ages 25 to 29 in 2012 have completed a high-school education and obtained a four-year college degree, in part as a result of the weak job market during and since the recent recession. College completion rates have also risen to record levels among key demographic groups, including men, women, blacks, whites, Hispanics, immigrants, and native-born Americans.

In this KIDS COUNT policy report, the Casey Foundation finds that nearly 6.5 million U.S. teens and young adults are neither in school nor in the workforce. With employment among young people at its lowest levels since the 1950s, these youth are veering toward chronic unemployment as adults and failing to gain the skills employers need in the 21st century. In addition to new national and state data on the issue, the report offers recommendations to support youth in gaining a stronger foothold in the economy.

The Alliance for Excellent Education recently released a new brief, The Role of Language and Literacy in College- and Career-Ready Standards: Rethinking Policy and Practice in Support of English Language Learners. This brief states that by 2020, more than half of all public school students will likely have a non–English-speaking background. Nevertheless, in all college- and career-ready standards, including the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), English is embedded throughout. Thus, in order to meet these standards, the growing proportion of students who are English language learners (ELLs) must possess and be able to demonstrate an understanding of not only the subject matter being considered but also of the English language. The brief also provides recommendations in four key areas to be implemented at the State level.

Nearly 6.5 million U.S. teens and young adults are neither in school nor in the workforce, veering toward chronic underemployment as adults and failing to gain the skills employers need in the 21st century, according to a new KIDS COUNT® report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The number of working youth dropped by almost half since 2000, while employment among young people is at its lowest level since the 1950s. This article highlights the "Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity" report that presents State-by-State data and highlights how issues of teen unemployment are exacerbated among youth from low-income families and among minority populations. It also emphasizes the need to provide multiple, flexible pathways to success for disconnected young people and to find ways to reengage high school dropouts.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research published an issue brief discussing the root cause of unemployment in the United States. Explanations of current levels of unemployment as resulting from structural unemployment, or a mismatch between the skills of the unemployed and the types of jobs available, is discussed. Evidence indicating that unemployment is actually a lack of aggregate demand is confirmed with strong evidence and graphical representations of data collected over the past six years.