Labor Policy Research

“Responses to Personal Reemployment Accounts (PRAs): Findings from the Demonstration States.” Gretchen Kirby, Margaret Sullivan, Elizabeth Potamites, Jackie Kauff, Elizabeth Clary, and Charles McGlew, June 2008. Personal Reemployment Accounts (PRAs) are self-managed accounts of $3,000 offered to select recipients of Unemployment Insurance benefits to support individual choice and control in reemployment services and promote a quick return to work. PRAs can be used to purchase training, intensive career counseling services, or support services. They can be received in two lump sum cash payments (bonuses) that reward workforce reentry and job retention. This report from an evaluation of PRA implementation in eight states found distinct groups of recipients differentiated by timing and type of account use. Although the majority of recipients are focused on the bonus, only 31 percent receive one. Among all recipients, 43 percent purchase some service, although the PRA is not generally viewed as a route for training.

"Collaborating with Faith- and Community-Based Organizations: Lessons Learned from 12 Workforce Investment Boards." Diane Paulsell, Jeffrey Max, Michelle Derr, and Andrew Burwick, May 2007. Faith-based and community organizations have the potential to be valuable partners in the workforce investment system. This report presents findings from Mathematica’s evaluation of grants to Workforce Investment Boards to increase the number of faith-based and community organizations providing services in the One-Stop system. The grants are also intended to expand One-Stop access to groups that have not traditionally used this service. The report notes that faith-based and community organizations can extend the workforce system’s reach to underserved populations, provide services tailored to meet the needs of hard-to-serve job seekers, help people with significant barriers to employment find jobs, and leverage community resources.

"Growing America Through Entrepreneurship: Interim Report." Jeanne Bellotti, Sheena McConnell, and Jacob Benus, August 2006. While many Americans dream about starting their own businesses, lack of business expertise and access to credit often prevent them from moving forward. Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship) was designed to provide assessment, training, and technical assistance to individuals interested in starting or growing a small business. This report describes implementation, services provided, characteristics of people served, and similarities and differences across five demonstration sites. Findings suggest that Project GATE could be reproduced on a wider scale.

"The Quantum Opportunity Program Demonstration: Final Impacts." Allen Schirm, Elizabeth Stuart, and Allison McKie, July 2006. From 1995 to 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Ford Foundation ran a demonstration of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP), mainly an after-school program that also began offering intensive and comprehensive services to at-risk youth when they entered ninth grade. QOP’s goals were to increase rates of high school graduation and enrollment in postsecondary education or training; secondary goals included improving high school grades and achievement test scores and reducing risky behaviors, such as substance abuse, crime, and teen parenting. This final report from Mathematica's random assignment evaluation presents impacts on outcomes measured when most sample members were 22 to 25 years old. Overall, QOP did not achieve its primary or secondary objectives, but the lack of overall impacts masks some suggestive evidence of promising effects for some sites and subgroups.

"Managing Customers' Training Choices: Findings from the Individual Training Account Experiment." Sheena McConnell, Elizabeth Stuart, Kenneth Fortson, Paul Decker, Irma Perez-Johnson, Barbara Harris, and Jeffrey Salzman, December 2006. A key goal of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) is to provide people with choices in the types of services they receive. This goal was addressed by requiring that vouchers or individual training accounts (ITAs) be used for WIA-funded training. Workforce agencies were given a great deal of flexibility about how to implement ITAs, but had little information on which to base this choice. This report addresses this information need by presenting findings from an experimental evaluation of three approaches to implementing ITAs. The approaches varied by how much counseling was required, whether the counselor could veto a choice, and how the amount of the ITA was set. The evaluation examined the effect of each approach on the use of counseling, receipt of training, and employment and earnings outcomes.

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