The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehabilitation Act) requires agencies to take proactive steps to provide equal opportunity to qualified individuals with disabilities, but their rate of employment with the Federal government remains low. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) convened a forum to identify promising practices for Federal agencies to implement in helping better identify barriers to the employment of people with disabilities in the Federal workforce. Of the attendees, participants noted the most significant barrier keeping people with disabilities from the workplace is based on people’s attitudes and bias toward people with disabilities.

This Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) webinar discussed postsecondary education and credentials for low income populations to help increase economic mobility for this group. Speakers from the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation provided information on best serving low-income adults and disadvantaged youth through education.

This paper is from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and shows why collaboration and coordination across programs is critical in terms of policy, procedure, and data utilization. Designed for practitioners, authors discuss the challenges to implement this process and how to overcome them. Authors focus on Medicaid and SNAP, but also provide examples of how to include TANF, child care, and other programs in such an effort to better support working families.

Federally funded employment and training programs play an important role in helping job seekers obtain employment, and the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services (HHS) largely administer these programs. This report from the Government Accountability Office was designed to determine: (1) whether the number of Federal employment and training programs and funding for them have changed since their 2003 report; (2) what kinds of outcome measures the programs use and what is known about program effectiveness; (3) the extent to which the programs provide similar services to similar populations; (4) the extent to which duplication may exist among selected large programs; and (5) what options exist for increasing efficiencies among these programs.

The Department of Labor has launched a new online tool will help young adults, students, first-time workers and those returning to the workforce to explore careers and find jobs. The page includes information on 900 occupations, job openings, and trainings opportunities. Users can search for jobs in three categories: careers with a "bright outlook" in growing industries, jobs that are part of the "green" economy, and occupations that have a Registered Apprenticeship program. This tool is a complement tool to the Department of Labor’s "mySkills myFuture" site at http://mySkillsmyFuture.org.

From the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and the Center for Law and Social Policy, this paper presents the results of a telephone survey of subsidized employment programs funded all or in part with funds from the TANF Emergency Fund. The goal of this research was to understand how States used flexibility to design and implement subsidized employment programs and what challenges they faced and to provide a written record of States’ experiences that could be used to inform future efforts.

From the Child Trends Databank, this page includes the latest information on youth employment. Specifically, employment declined in 2009 for youth (ages 16-24), which is a trend that began in 2000. In October 2009, 45 percent of youth were employed at some level, and those not enrolled in school were employed at 63 percent. The data also show that in 2009, 20 percent of youth were neither enrolled nor employed. Authors cite multiple factors explaining the decline in employment, including the current economic recession.

MDRC is currently conducting an impact evaluation of the New York City-based Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO). This report presents the interim results from the CEO program, which is a transitional jobs program designed to help former prisoners increase longer-term employment and reduce recidivism. Overall, results show that the program has had the highest rate of reductions in recidivism for the highest risk former prisoners. Researchers suggest similar transitional jobs initiatives target the highest risk population with the highest likelihood of reoffending.

The Office of Family Assistance is pleased to remind you of an excellent opportunity for State and local Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies to partner with local Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites to help American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) subsidized employment workers receive additional resources.

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this news report discusses Census data that show, despite the economic recession, government efforts prevented an increase in poverty in 2009. Specifically, existing programs, such as unemployment insurance, assistance programs for low-income households, and tax credits for low-income working families, provided an important safety net. The Recovery Act’s programs and increased funding to existing programs kept more than 4.5 million people out of poverty in 2009.