This Mathematica resource is part of the evaluation of Promoting Opportunity Demonstration (POD), which provided modifications to Social Security Disability Insurance program rules to determine if a benefit offset formula can promote employment, reduce people’s dependence on benefits, and decrease the program’s administrative complexity. This publication is a study of how disability beneficiary work behavior responds to a rule change that replaces a cash cliff, a threshold above which benefits reduce to zero, with a benefit offset ramp. This resource provides an analysis of mechanisms indicating that administrative burden, the limited size of the incentive, and individual and systemic barriers to employment for people with disabilities likely contributed to the limited impacts.

The 100% New Mexico Initiative is a community-led, data-driven approach to ensure all New Mexicans have access to vital services, including job training, transportation, and parent supports. Local communities are guided by a seven-step process to survey community members, assess results, and target evidence-informed solutions to resolve barriers to all community members accessing vital services. This Chapin Hall research brief series describes the baseline results from 6,549 local community members from 11 counties about barriers they face accessing vital services.  

This Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) report examines the link between measures of self-regulation skills and longer-term outcomes among adults with low incomes. OPRE drew on the conceptualization of self-regulation skills from the Goal-Oriented Adult Learning in Self-Sufficiency (GOALS) project and used data from the Evaluation of Employment Coaching for TANF and Related Populations. Using both sets of data, OPRE examined the predictive power of self-regulation measures by examining their link to future outcomes such as earnings and employment one year later.

On April 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced the award of $10.5 million to fund the first year of four, five-year cooperative agreements aimed at developing strategies to assist youth and young adults with disabilities — particularly in underserved communities — in successfully transitioning into the workforce. This DOL news releasee announces that Connecticut DOL, Kansas Department of Commerce, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, and the New York DOL received the awards.

Work Success is a novel program for adults with low incomes. It combines intensive group and individual coaching with workshops on topics such as resume writing, job search strategies, and interviewing skills. The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) is sponsoring an evaluation of Work Success as part of the Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies Project. Mathematica is conducting this evaluation to explore the program’s implementation and its impact on the well-being of study participants. This OPRE report describes the design and analysis plan for the impact study of Work Success. It discusses employment coaching and explains why Work Success is expected to affect participants’ employment and economic security.

With digital literacy quickly becoming essential for success in most personal, civic, educational, and career pursuits, adult educators across the country are searching for guidance on what digital skills to teach. In a national landscape scan for the Digital Resilience in the American Workforce project, numerous stakeholders—including adult educators, employers, and workforce experts—identified a need for common definitions and frameworks for digital skills. This EdTech Center resource provides the requested definitions and a compilation of digital skill frameworks.

ProLiteracy hosted a virtual training on September 25, 2023, where participants learned innovative strategies for guiding learners through the journey of career exploration and how to integrate them into classroom activities. The presenter discussed the importance of teaching essential career-related vocabulary, user-friendly tools for skill and interest assessment, and online resources that open doors to vital information about diverse careers. Attendees learned how to connect adult learners with real-world insights that will enhance their digital literacy skill set.

Existing digital employment tools and technologies often fail to meet the needs of historically underserved and marginalized communities, who experience barriers of access and digital literacy related to digital employment tools. These barriers might exacerbate existing inequities in the labor market for underserved and marginalized populations. This Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation brief focuses on digital employment tools created with Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design approaches and describes the role of digital employment tools for low-income populations. The brief details how each phase of the HCI design approach differs from other approaches to developing digital employment tools.

State and local leaders at Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies have been increasingly focused on using administrative data from TANF and other agencies to better assess how well programs are working, inform policies and practices, and improve the lives of families with low incomes. Economic mobility through employment retention and advancement is of particular interest to TANF leaders, but administrative data on TANF recipients’ earnings are often difficult to access except for the purpose of investigating noncompliance. This MDRC toolkit was created to help TANF professionals develop more robust, data-driven practices using administrative data on earnings.

In September 2022, the Rehabilitation Services Administration awarded five-year grants for Disability Innovation Fund demonstration projects. A part of the Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment (SWTCIE) program, these federal FY2022 grants provided funding to 14 state vocational rehabilitation agencies to implement Innovative Model Demonstration projects. These projects aim to decrease subminimum wage employment and increase competitive integrated employment for people with disabilities currently employed in or contemplating subminimum wage employment. This Mathematica brief explores how SWTCIE projects engage people with disabilities and lived experience through communities of practice, stakeholder groups, and mentoring programs.