The U.S. Department of Labor’s Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR) promotes informed decision making and policy development by providing a central and trusted source of research evidence on labor-related issues. CLEAR’s mission is to make research on labor topics more accessible to practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and the public. CLEAR identifies the literature on a given topic, provides descriptions of the studies, and synthesizes the research on specific policy questions.

CLEAR disseminates the results of the review process through a website. The site contains a searchable database of all identified research on a given topic area, along with brief highlights of the studies and links to the original research, when possible. The website presents profiles of selected studies along with assessments of the quality of evidence on the causal impact of programs and policies, when appropriate. It also includes synthesis pieces to provide accessible and useful information to target audiences. Finally, it incorporates background documents such as reviewer guidelines and descriptions of CLEAR policies and procedures.

During its pilot phase, CLEAR reviewed studies under two topic areas: Opportunities for Youth and OSHA Enforcement. For the former, CLEAR identified research that examined interventions to improve labor market outcomes for youth ages 14 to 24, including interventions for justice-involved youth. For the latter, CLEAR evaluated research determining whether OSHA enforcement activities reduced the occurrence of workplace illnesses, injuries, exposure to hazards, and/or death. During phase two, CLEAR expanded to include reviews in new topic areas including Behavioral Finance, Career Academies, Community College Bridge Programs, Compliance Assistance, Disability Employment Policy, Employment Retention and Advancement, Reemployment, and Women in STEM. Phase three of the project continues reviews in existing topic areas, identifies additional topic areas of interest, and conducts reviews in those topic areas.