This 12-page practitioner brief focuses on one aspect of the ERA programs — that is, their strategies to reemploy the many program participants who quickly lost jobs. Limited rigorous evidence is available on reemployment strategies. Moreover, the ERA evaluation was not designed to test the effectiveness of the specific strategies discussed in this document. However, the experiences — successful or not — across the ERA programs can provide important lessons for developing or operating employment programs for current and former welfare recipients. The reemployment services that were offered to newly unemployed individuals are similar to job placement services in programs that target unemployed populations generally, but there are differences, particularly in using recent job loss as a learning tool in finding the next job.

While preventing job loss can be an appropriate goal for retention and advancement programs, the ERA study illustrates how challenging it is to keep individuals in a particular job. Programs might consider redefining “retention” as sustained employment across jobs rather than as sustained employment in any one job. The focus in this brief is on how to address job loss once it has happened: structuring job search and job placement services for those who have recently lost their jobs, with the goal of reducing the length of unemployment, improving the quality of the new job over the previous one, and achieving greater employment stability over time. The lessons address three overarching questions:

How can programs learn about participants’ job losses quickly?

Which strategies might contribute to faster reemployment?

How can managers organize staff and resources to address job loss?  (author abstract)

This curriculum was developed by the Office of Disability Employment Policy within the U.S. Department of Labor. The curriculum focuses on “soft” workforce readiness skills for youth ages 14 to 21, including youth with disabilities. Built in modules, each section includes hands-on activities in the following key areas: communication, enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, networking, problem solving and critical thinking, and professionalism.

This First Focus report from the Brookings Institution offers a summary of the economic recession’s impact on children in the United States. During an average month in 2011, an estimated 6.5 children had an unemployed parent, with more than 1 million living in California, which has an unemployment rate of 12 percent. Many children are receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as a result of the recession, as children make up half of all SNAP beneficiaries. SNAP caseloads have increased by 70 percent over the last four years. Finally, child poverty has increased from 18 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2010.

As the United States continues to face high unemployment in the wake of the recent recession, federally funded workforce programs can play an important role in bridging gaps between the skills present in the workforce and the skills needed for available jobs. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) sought to strengthen the connection between workforce programs and employers, but GAO’s prior work has found that collaboration remains a challenge. With WIA currently awaiting reauthorization, GAO reviewed (1) factors that facilitated innovative collaborations among workforce boards, employers, and others; (2) major challenges to collaboration; and (3) actions the Department of Labor has taken to support local collaborative efforts. GAO examined 14 local initiatives identified by experts as among the most promising or innovative efforts in which local workforce boards collaborated effectively with employers and other partners to achieve positive results. GAO interviewed representatives of the 14 initiatives and officials from five federal agencies. GAO also reviewed reports on the initiatives and relevant federal laws, regulations, and other documents

Although much is known about how to help welfare recipients find jobs, little is known about how to help them and other low-wage workers keep jobs or advance in the labor market. This report presents information on the effectiveness of a program in Chicago that aimed to help employed welfare recipients increase their earnings. The program was tested as part of the Employment Retention and Advancement Project (ERA), which is studying 15 programs across the country. The ERA project was conceived by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; it is being conducted by MDRC under contract to ACF, with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Chicago ERA program, which operated from February 2002 to June 2004, targeted recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance benefits who appeared to be stuck in low-paying jobs: individuals who worked at least 30 hours per week for at least six consecutive months but earned so little that they remained eligible for TANF benefits. The program, which was funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) and operated under contract to DHS by Employment and Employer Services, sought to help participants advance in their current jobs or move to higher-paying jobs. The Chicago ERA program is being evaluated using a random assignment research design, whereby eligible individuals were assigned, through a lottery-like process, to one of two groups. Those assigned to the ERA group were recruited for the program and, if they remained on TANF, were required to participate. Those assigned to the control group were neither required nor permitted to participate in ERA, but they could obtain other services from DHS or other organizations. (author abstract)

From the Lumina Foundation, this video clip provides information on a public-private partnership in Louisville, Kentucky. The partnership has set a goal of adding 55,000 bachelors and associate degrees by the year 2020. The partnership is a collaborative effort of Louisville employers, educators, and civic leaders, who are focused on building a well-educated, innovative, and productive workforce. This video is the first in a series that will be released by the Lumina Foundation.

The U.S. Department of Labor launched the “Equal Pay App Challenge,” a national competition to develop software applications, or “apps,” that leverage public data to promote equal pay for men and women. In the U.S., women make up half of the workforce and two-thirds of our families rely on a mother’s wages for a significant portion of their income. Yet, women, on average, make less on the dollar than men, and the gap is even greater for women of color and women with disabilities. The Challenge calls for developers to incorporate publicly available data and resources to create innovative, easy-to-use apps that educate users about the pay gap and provide tools to combat it.

The Martin Prosperity Institute authored this report on a “skills revolution” in economic research based on an increasing focus on employment skills since the 1990s. Authors summarize key findings from this literature, which include growing geographic differences in skills across cities and these differences’ effects on the region’s economic development. Given the geographic differences, authors highlight the finding that location is an important consideration for organizing and building skills, such as the location of universities.

In this blog, the U.S. Department of Labor's offices provide news and commentary from departmental leadership to help connect readers to the Department. The Department is charged with creating pathways to profitable employment and ensuring safe and healthy workplaces.