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1.State Trends in Unemployment Insurance Eligibility, Benefits, and Take-up, 1990-2000
This paper focuses on both policy changes in unemployment
insurance systems throughout the 1990s and state-to-state differences in
unemployment insurance policy. We pay particular attention to those factors that
are likely to impact low-wage workers, part-time workers, and workers with
interrupted or limited labor market experience. From 1990-2000 we analyze
changes in (1) eligibility requirements, (2) benefit amounts, and (3) the
percentage of unemployed workers applying for benefits, referred to as insured
unemployment. We also analyze the potential factors that have led to these
changes, particularly looking into the role of the minimum wage in
affecting these changes.
Overall, we find an important effect of the minimum wage
on insured unemployment. We estimate that a $1 increase in the minimum wage
raises the percentage of workers filing unemployment insurance claims by 3.1%.
This is likely due to minimum wage increases enabling more workers to earn
enough to qualify for benefits, and raising the weekly benefit amount.
Furthermore, we find that, while most states made it easier to qualify for
benefits and most states increased benefit maximums, a smaller percentage
of unemployed workers applied for and received benefits. This contradiction is
partly explained by the reduction in union employment and migration of
manufacturing from high-benefit states to low benefit states. It is likely that
low levels of unionization raise the likelihood of workers being unaware of
their benefits. Migration into less generous states makes applying for benefits
less remunerative.
2. Workers' Recall Expectations and Their Implications for Worker Profiling
Attach 1 (Tables)
Temporary layoffs are an important feature of the U.S.
labor market. The importance of recalls highlights the relevance of
employer-employee relationships. To avoid breaking valuable job matches, the
profiling model for targeting claimants for services in the new Worker Profiling
and Reeemployment Services (WPRS) systems excludes claimants who have a specific
date of recall or are members of unions using hiring halls. However, many
laid-off workers who do not have a definite recall date expect to be rehired by
their former employers.
This paper reviews the empirical facts about laid-off
workers. Then, using the Displaced Workers Supplement to the Current Population
Survey, it presents new evidence that laid-off workers have longer unemployment
spells than observationally similar workers who are less likely to expect to be
recalled. The paper then explores the policy implications of this differential
search behavior between workers expecting to be recalled and those not expecting
to be recalled and concludes by presenting an alternative profiling model.
The underlined implication for the alternative profiling model indicates
that targeting reemployment services to laid-off workers most likely to exhaust
UI benefits may not be optimal, especially if such workers have valuable job
matches with their former employers. Thus, we suggest that a new profiling model
should acknowledge the differences among claimants and target them differently
according to both their recall expectations and their probability of UI
exhaustion.
The three-step profiling
model would identify four types of claimants as follows: Type I. Claimants who
are likely to expect a recall at displacement and are likely
to be recalled ex-post. Type II. Claimants who are likely to expect a recall at
displacement but are not likely to be recalled ex-post.
Type III. Claimants who are not likely to expect a recall at displacement but are
likely to exhaust their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. Type IV. Claimants
who are not likely to expect a recall at displacement and not likely to exhaust
their UI benefits.
3. Compensating American Families for Births and Adoptions
Growth in women's participation in paid employment has been a salient
development in the U.S. labor market since 1950. Increased work by married
women with small children have been especially noticeable. Somewhat more than
half of women now return to work during the year following a birth. The Clinton
Administration issued a rule effective in August 2000 permitting states to
compensate families with childbirths and new adoptions through State
Unemployment Insurance (UI). Up to twelve weeks (or more if a state opts for a
longer potential duration) of UI payments would be permitted in the year following
births and adoptions. The rule allows states to voluntarily enact birth and adoption
unemployment compensation (BAA-UC). Details of the legislation are to be
developed by the states.
During 2000, BAA-UC proposals were introduced in 15 states but none were enacted. This report
reviews the BAA-UC proposal and discusses alternative ways to compensate
families for births and adoptions. It examines the changes implied for UI
programs if BAA-UC is adopted. Three alternatives to BAA-UC are: 1) compensation
through state temporary disability insurance (TDI), 2) partial reimbursement to
employers who provide paid leave, and 3) administration of payments through UI
but with no link to the financing or trust funds of existing UI programs in the
states. Some comparisons among these alternatives are made. Enactment of BAA-UC
or one of the alternatives implies added costs, which must be financed, most
likely by payroll taxes or general revenues. The report examines costs in some
detail. Overall, had all states offered BAA-UC in 1999, it would have added
about 10 percent to the costs of existing UI programs. Since 1999 was a year of
unusually low UI costs, the long run cost increase from BAA-UC is
probably closer to 6 or 7 percent. The cost increases caused by BAA-UC are larger than for
other changes in UI benefits enacted during the 1990s.
While considerable uncertainty surrounds the cost estimates, it is clear
that BAA-UC implies proportionately larger cost increases for states.
Overall, the policy conclusion is that states wanting to compensate families for births and
adoptions face a wide range of feasible choices in establishing such a program.
4. The Incidence and Cost of Wrongfully Denied Unemployment Benefits
Since 1987, the U.S. Department of Labor has performed random audits of
Unemployment Insurance (UI) payments in order to estimate the extent of benefit
payment errors -- particularly overpayments. However, the accuracy of the process
that determines benefit eligibility has not been assessed. In particular, the extent
to which eligible claimants for UI are wrongfully denied benefits was not known.
This paper reports the results of the Denied Claims Accuracy (DCA) Pilot Project, a five-state pilot
conducted by the Department of Labor during 1997-98, in which random samples of
monetary, separation, and nonseparation denials were subjected to intensive
field investigation in order to determine their accuracy. Two main sets
of findings are reported.
The first pertains to the incidence of wrongful denials: After adjusting for appeals, redeterminations,
and other agency actions to resolve errors, 11 percent of monetary denials, over 6
percent of the separation denials, and 13 percent of nonseparation denials were in error. Several aspects of
these basic findings are discussed: the effectiveness of UI agency activities and
the appeals process in correcting errors, the causes of wrongful denials, and
the extent to which wrongful denials are correlated with observable claimant
characteristics. For example, responsibility for 32.6 percent of the wrongful monetary
denials was assigned to the agency, responsibility for 38.3 percent of the errors was
assigned to the employers, and responsibility for 7.1 percent of the errors was
assigned to the employer and agency jointly. On nonseperation denial errors,
responsibility for about two-thirds of all non-separation denial errors can be attributed to the
agency.
The second set of findings pertains to the dollar value of benefits lost by claimants due to wrongful
denials. Lost benefits are unobservable and must be imputed; two approaches to
making the imputations are developed. The imputations suggest that between
$565 million and $625 million in benefits were wrongfully denied in the
United States during fiscal year 1998, amounting to just over 3 percent of total
regular UI benefit payments. Of this total, between $220 million and $240 million
were wrongfully denied due to incorrect monetary determinations, between $190
million and $230 million were wrongfully denied due to incorrect separation
determinations, and between $150 and $155 million were wrongfully denied due to
incorrect nonseparation determinations.
5. Layoffs and Experience Rating of the Unemployment Insurance Payroll Tax: An
Analysis of Firms in Three States
In the United States, Unemployment Insurance (UI) is financed through a payroll tax that is collected
from employers. The payroll tax is "experience rated," meaning that, in principle, the tax rate paid by firms that have laid off more workers in the
past is higher than the rate paid by firms that have laid off relatively few workers. Experience rating is intended both to ensure that employers who lay off
workers make tax contributions commensurate with the UI benefits received by their former workers and to give employers an incentive to adopt an organization
of production that avoids temporary layoffs (both seasonal and cyclical). This research uses longitudinal data on firms in Missouri, Washington, and
Pennsylvania to examine the extent to which experience rating of the UI payroll tax affects the propensity of firms to lay off workers. We estimate models in
which various measures of a firm's layoffs are regressed on measures of the extent to which the firm will be burdened by additional costs if it lays off an
additional worker. The approach has three main features. First, the unit of observation is the firm rather than the worker or some industry sub-aggregate.
Second, the UI administrative data used allow direct observation of the tax rates and layoff incentives facing each firm. Third, the panel
data allow us to distinguish between firm fixed effects (that is, heterogeneity) and
experience rating of the UI payroll tax as determinants of layoffs.
The results suggest that experience rating does
significantly reduce layoffs,
although the estimated impacts are more modest than those
found in the majority
of past research. In particular, simulations based on the
estimates suggest that
increased experience rating would reduce seasonal
employment variability by up to
1 percent, would reduce negative deviations from trend
employment by up to 6
percent, and would increase permanent layoffs
substantially (by 4 to 6 percent in
Washington and Pennsylvania, and by over 10 percent in
Missouri).
6.The Distributional Consequences of Unemployment Benefits and Taxes
The literature on the
effects of unemployment insurance (UI) has focused on individual and firm moral
hazard, and to a lesser extent the insurance value of UI. A central, yet less
examined issue is the distributional consequences of UI tax collections and
benefit payments. The importance of the distribution of UI tax burdens has risen
following the Department of Labor's decision to allow states to make
Unemployment Insurance available to workers who take leave upon the birth or
adoption of a child. Financing family leave through the UI system is likely to
have very different distributional consequences than financing it through
general revenues, as we show. We examine the distributional consequences of the
UI payroll tax and UI benefits using representative individual microdata. We
calculate taxes paid, benefits and net
benefits received, by income decile, incorporating the
effects of multiple job holding and turnover. We then
compare the distribution of
burdens of the UI payroll tax to those imposed by the
federal income tax.
To be more specific, we
calculate taxes paid by individual wage and individual and household income
deciles, incorporating the effects of multiple job holding and turnover. This
distribution of taxes is then contrasted with the distribution of UI benefits,
and compared to the burdens imposed by the federal income tax. We conclude that
the UI payroll tax is indeed very regressive, both across households and
individuals. Not surprisingly, the burden is especially high for low-wage
workers, relative to those with higher wages. Workers in the lowest deciles pay
almost 3 percent of their income in UI payroll taxes, while those in the highest
deciles pay only around 0.5 percent. While less extreme at the household level,
since the lowest deciles pay about 1 percent of income in this case, the highest
deciles still pay only about
0.5 percent.
Policy implications for BAA-UC benefit as the result of
analysis are derived as follows: On the assumption that the prevalence of new
children is more uniformly distributed than is the prevalence of job loss, the
share of BAA-UC benefits going to relatively high-income groups is potentially
larger. Additionally, if payroll tax rate increases were to become necessary to
fully fund the new benefits, the low tax base implies an increasingly regressive
UI tax system. At the same time, the federal income tax system is clearly shown
to be progressive. Thus, if family leave benefits were to be funded from general
revenues, the distributional consequences would be very different and a careful
analysis of the distributional consequences of the UI payroll tax is
imperative.
7. Predictive Validity of a Multidisciplinary Model of Reemployment Success
Note:For the full paper please contact the Author Conie R. Wanberg at
cwanberg@csom.umn.edu
In this paper, a multidisciplinary model of the
predictors of reemployment is
proposed and its predictive validity for explaining
reemployment success is tested.
Two important theoretical contributions of this study are
the multidisciplinary
conceptual model of the economic, sociological, and
psychological variable groups
associated with reemployment success and the hypothesized
roles of and relationships
between the predictor variables and reemployment success. Another
important contribution of this study is the empirical
evidence for the predictive
validity of many of the hypothesized variables in our
proposed multidisciplinary
model. In our model, reemployment success is
conceptualized as a construct
consisting of unemployment insurance (UI) benefit
exhaustion and reemployment
speed; and for reemployed persons, job improvement,
job/organization fit, and
intention to leave the new job.
This is the first validated multidisciplinary model in the
literature. The validity of our conceptual model is examined in a large
statewide sample having a variety of occupational, industrial, and educational
backgrounds with variables that were both self-report and non-self-report in
nature. Almost every variable used to operationalize our conceptual model was a
significant predictor of at least one of the indicators of reemployment success.
Although the variance accounted for in the criterion constructs is small, each
of the hypothesized psychological and sociological variables in the model
contributes to the prediction of at least one criterion, and all but three of
the economic variables contribute to the prediction of at least one criterion.
Direct, mediated, and moderated relationships were hypothesized and tested,
clarifying the role of the variables in the reemployment process
and outcome.
8. Measuring the Effect of Job Service Referrals and Placements in Washington and
Oregon
This paper describes our research using data from
Washington state and Oregon to
measure the benefits derived from the principal
labor-exchange service offered by
the Job Service: matching job seekers to openings listed by
employers. Most
matching is done by job seekers looking through
computerized lists at Job Service
offices. The main purpose of this research is to address
two key questions: 1)
What are the benefits of public labor exchange (PLX)
direct placement services
given to job seekers, and how do those benefits compare
to the costs of providing
the services? 2) How can we best apply the lessons from
our research to provide
meaningful ongoing feedback about the value of PLX
services to monitor and
improve performance?
To do this, three data
sets are used: 1) survey responses from 587 job seekers referred to jobs by
Washington State PLX during the first half of 1998; 2) administrative data
covering PLX use during 328,815 spells of unemployment covered by unemployment
insurance in Washington State from 1987 through mid-1995; 3) administrative data
covering PLX use during 138,280 spells of unemployment covered by unemployment
insurance in Oregon during 1995. We also use these data to estimate the effect
of placements and referrals on the duration of unemployment. Furthermore, we use
a simulation model to examine the extent to which reductions in unemployment to
PLX users come at the expense of non-users.
The main conclusion is that use of a highly innovative
survey shows promise in
providing unbiased estimates of placement effects based
on a natural experiment
stemming for delays in removing job listings from
computerized files. While the
current results are not definitive because the sample may
not be representative of
the universe of placed job-seekers, the results suggest
that the benefits of the PLX
services are considerably higher than the costs. The
pilot procedure tested in the
study produced estimates that job seekers with strong
work records in our sample
who were placed by PLXs experienced a 7.2 week reduction
in their
unemployment duration, and placed job seekers with spotty
work records
experienced a 3.4-week reduction. Also, the
benefit-cost ratio for using PLX for the
sample studies is 1.8.
A second conclusion is
that with unbiased measures of placement effects based on identifying job
seekers who obtained referrals too late to secure interviews, those estimates
can be used as benchmarks to produce unbiased results from administrative data
alone. A third conclusion is that placement-effect estimates substantially
underestimate the total value to jobseekers of direct
placement services.
Our estimates based on administrative data alone suggest that placement
reduce claimants' unemployment by 7.7 weeks, while
referrals not leading to
placements reduce claimants' unemployment by 2.1 weeks. A
fourth conclusion is
that PLX direct placement services substantially reduce
UI payments. And these
reductions equal about one-quarter of the gains in
earnings.
9.
Using Statistical Assesment Tools to Target Services to Work First Participants
This paper describes the design and evaluation of a recently
completed Work First Pilot in the state of Michigan, funded by the Employment
and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, that uses
statistical methods to assess each customer's needs and then uses the assessment
to refer them to services. The pilot addresses the need for early identification
of employment barriers faced by welfare recipients. Welfare-to-Work programs
typically treat all recipients the same, providing the same basic services
regardless of a participant's skills, aptitudes, and motivations. Yet barriers
vary widely. Some customers require little assistance in finding a job while
others have multiple barriers that demand attention. However, Work First
programs do not have sufficient funds to provide case mangers for all customers
who need more specialized attention and advocacy. This pilot develops
administrative tools to target services to customers
without changing the nature of
the program or significantly raising costs.
Statistical techniques
were used to estimate the likelihood of employment based on participants'
demographic and work history information found in administrative records. An
employability score was computed for each customer, which was then used to
assign each participant to one of three providers. Each provider offered the
same basic set of services but differed
in the mix of services and in their approach
to delivering services. For instance, one provider
stressed a goal-oriented approach
to job search, requiring that participants call a given
number of employers each day
until they found a job. Another provider offered more
assistance to customers in
conducting phone inquiries and in interviewing for jobs.
The pilot used these
differences in the approach to delivering services to
determine the best provider for
each customer.
The evaluation, based on
random assignment, provides evidence that the pilot was successful in using
statistical tools to improve program outcomes by placing more welfare recipients
into jobs. It showed that the statistical assessment tool successfully
distinguished among participants with respect to barriers to employment. It also
found that referring participants to service providers according
to their individualized statistical needs assessment
(employability score) increased
the overall effectiveness of the programs as measured by
the program goal of
customers finding and retaining a job for 90 consecutive
days. The optimal referral
pattern based on the statistical assessment yielded
retention rates that were 25
percent higher than if participants were randomly
assigned to provider. Moreover,
the difference between the best and worse referral
combination was 56 percent.
Further analysis showed that the ratio of earnings during
the 90-day retention period
to the average cost of the program was 1.84 for the
optimal referral combination
versus 1.44 for the worse referral combination, a
difference of 30 percent. When
averaged by provider, hourly wages ranged from a high of
$7.43 to a low of $5.04.
Hours work per week ranged from 33 to 24. These results
suggest that targeted
services, based on statistical assessment, are more
effective in placing welfare
recipients in jobs than uniform services in which a
one-size-fits-all approach is
taken.
10. Escaping Poverty for Low-Wage Workers: The Role of Employer
Characteristics and Changes
Welfare reform has resulted in the influx of millions of low-wage female
workers into the labor market. Critical to the development of effective welfare to
work policies are the issues surrounding wage and benefit levels and potential for earnings
growth. Is economic self-sufficiency attainable? This issue is relevant for all
low-wage workers.
Many more questions surround job search and placement strategies, skills
training,job retention, and employer matching. This paper presents preliminary
summary evidence on low-wage workers and their jobs and earnings from a new
source of data: the longitudinal Employer-Household Data (LEHD) being compiled at
the U.S.
Census Bureau. By matching these data to Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage records
and transforming data, analysis of a wide range of worker and employer
dynamics can be conducted.
The study uses a database
that matches workers with past and present employers, together with employer and
worker characteristics. UI records are matched when possible and provide limited
demographic information. Results are based upon a 5% random sample of wage
records for the state of Illinois between 1990 and 1995. Analysis is limited to
workers aged 25-64 and who have employment in at least two
quarters
for each calendar year. For administrative purposes, low-wage status is
defined as earning less that $12,000/year for three
consecutive years.
Analysis of the data
indicates that there is considerable mobility into and out of low-wage
employment status. Changes in employers are associated with almost half of all
transitions out of or into low-wage employment status. Additionally, employer
changes are associated with the largest gains in earning for those escaping
low-wage status and the largest losses in earnings among those entering that
status. Women, minorities and the less educated are likely to have
permanently lower
earnings, and therefore have more difficulty being matched to
good employers.
Improvements in defining employer characteristics as well
as increasing matched
data for better demographic information would allow
better examination of the
differences over time and across regions in the ability
of low-wage workers to
improve their earning status and be matched to
higher-quality employers.
11. The New Workforce: Age and Ethnic Changes
At least three issues
arise as a result of the aging baby boom in the U.S. workforce: there is an
increase in older workers; there will be a smaller pool of workers
in the generation the immediately follows the baby boom; and the
workforce will transition from an older more homogenous
workforce to a younger
more diverse workforce. This paper focuses on the direct
effects of current
population dynamics, more specifically age and ethnic
changes, on the future labor
force.
Data from California are
used primarily, but a comparison between California and
the
U.S. is used to illustrate trends in workforce transitions as the country moves
to
a post-baby boom workforce. A discussion of the global
issue of aging is also
presented. The authors note that many workers want or
need to work past normal
retirement age, lessening the likelihood of a large-scale
retirement by
U.S.
workers. However, the public sector, including civil
service and education
occupations, is vulnerable to worker shortages as the
population ages. For
employers, the immediate challenge will be to determine
the ways and means of
employing aging workers by utilizing "phased" retirement
options such as flexible or
part-time hours and providing an adequate work
environment. Employers must also
recognize the changing face of the future workforce:
younger and more diverse
ethnically and culturally.
12. Transitions off Welfare: An Examination of Demographic, Socioeconomic, and
Motivational Predictors
Note: For the full paper please contact the author Amy L.
Stellmack at amy.stellmack@personneldecisions.com
A three-wave longitudinal study of 1139 Minnesota Family
Investment Program
(MFIP) recipients was conducted over a period of 18
months to examine the
predictors of welfare outcomes in the context of the 1996
federal welfare reform act.
In addition to the demographic and socioeconomic
variables that typically have
been examined in the welfare literature, motivational
variables (i.e., achievement
motivation, self-efficacy, and goal commitment) that have
been touted to be
important by the popular press and in qualitative
studies, but never systematically
measured, were examined.
This study examined the
predictors of welfare outcome under the new system of work requirements and time
limits, and also expanded the traditional predictor variables used in this type
of research to include three socioeconomic predictors, child-care problems,
English-speaking difficulty, and car reliability. These issues are of particular
interest to policy makers and human service organizations. As the
result of
analysis, it is suggested that: 1) additional research is needed on possible
barriers to making transitions off welfare, including
alcohol and drug abuse and
domestic violence; and 2) additional psychological
variables should be more fully
examined and studies of coping, job performance and
achievement for recent
welfare leavers would be useful.
13. Turning Skills into Profit: Economic Benefits of Workplace Education
Programs
U.S. employers face a
shortage of skilled workers: More than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce and more
than 50 percent of high school graduates do not have the
basic skills to do their job.
Twenty-five surveyed CEOs list shortages of key skills
as a top challenge. One solution to this problem is to
utilize workplace education
programs (WEPs). Customized to meet specific employer
needs, WEPs develop
employees and improve the bottom line. This study relies
upon survey data to
examine the need for WEPs and the extent to which they
improve corporate
productivity and profitability.
More than 100 interviews were conducted with employers,
employees, and union
representatives from over 40 private- and public-sector
workplaces representing a
cross-section of economic sectors throughout the United
States. The interviewees
were selected from 45 national workplace education
projects funded between
1995-1998 by the U.S. Department of Education as part of
the National Workplace
Literacy Program.
Survey results indicate that 80% or more of employers
reported skills gains by their employees through WEPs. They included greater
willingness and ability to learn for life; improved ability to listen, to
understand, learn and apply information and analysis; improved understanding and
ability to use documents; more positive attitude toward change; and better
ability to build and work in teams. Over 80% of employers also report
organizational benefits gained through WEPs. These include improved employee
morale/self-esteem, increased quality of work, improved capacity to solve
problems, and better team performance.
14. Matching IT Jobs with IT People
Employers experience difficulties filling vacancies for information technology (IT)
positions because of the rapid growth in demand for IT workers, high turnover, and the
unique characteristics of IT work. In response, various public and private organizations
are working to match job-seekers with IT vacancies. Education, training, assessment,
and job-matching services must be aligned with real labor market needs and tailored to
the unique characteristics of IT work and workers. This alignment requires increased
integration of work and learning. This report provides information designed to build a
sustained partnership between IT employers and education and training providers.
Furthermore, the paper also provides information about what IT work is, how employee
selection is made, and the training gap facing employers. This information is reviewed
and used to provide policies designed to integrate work and learning. A variety of
regional initiatives are mentioned, providing real-life examples of how employer-training
partnership works. State and federal funding issues are paramount to the success of these
ventures.
15. Welfare to Work Policy - Getting A Job is a First Step: What Should Follow?
By targeting specific sub-populations of the working poor, including high school
dropouts and graduates with a high risk of repeated failure to keep a job, current and
recent welfare recipients, candidates for parole from prison and recent parolees, and
active substance abusers, descriptive information can be gleaned about the magnitude of
the earnings problem for young welfare recipients. This paper concentrates on what
might be done for targeted individuals in a neglected sub-population of the poor - those
who are working.
The paper focuses on birth year cohorts of young women in Baltimore City who are
known to have experienced at least one spell of welfare dependency between their 19th
and 29th birthdays. Average quarterly earnings for specifically defined sub-populations
were calculated. Analysis of the data suggests that job retention and higher earnings
must be pursued more effectively for the working poor. Job entry alone is not a key to
economic self-sufficiency. It must be linked with strategies for job retention and wage
increases.
16. The Emergence of a Binational Mexico-US Workforce: Implications for Farm
Labor Workforce Security
Arguing that the U.S. agricultural labor market is
already a binational one (with
Mexico), the authors examine what this implies for policy
development and program
planning. Binational collaboration can lead to an
improvement in the employment
security and economic well being of migrant and seasonal
farm workers (MSFWs).
A better understanding of the dynamic interactions among
these two closely linked
but partially independent labor markets will allow for
the development of more
effective strategies for workforce development. This
report provides background
studies and research to assist in the reassessment and
redesign of federal and
state strategies for assuring the employment security of
MSFWs. Current public
perceptions of MSFWs and the farm labor force as a whole
are based upon the
past and have little validity when compared to the
reality of today's MSFW.
Four areas of policy initiatives are recommended: 1)
improve employment stability
and economic self-sufficiency of the U.S. farm labor
force by promoting legislation
to overcome service barriers due to immigration status;
2) develop migrant
education program designs to provide basic skills
development for working MSFWs
who are teenagers or young adults; 3) redesign MSFW
employment training
programs to address career orientation, skills
development, and, for aging workers,
career transition services; and 4) strengthen enforcement
of existing laws by
expanding MSFW eligibility for free legal services.
Furthermore, a binational
approach to workforce employment security is discussed as an important policy
option. Specific aspects that should be explored are: binational eligibility for
unemployment insurance; binational strategies to deter the employment of very
young teenagers in the US farm labor force; "anytime, anyplace"
skills development programs for transnational migrant farm workers;
binational collaborative efforts to inform transnational
migrants about U.S. labor law;
and education and employment training components in
efforts to link remittances
and public investment in rural development in
migrant-sending areas.
17. Is the Unemployment Insurance System a Safety Net for Welfare Recipients Who Exit Welfare for Work?
New welfare law under the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)
includes strong incentives for participants to work, namely time limits.
However, time restrictions for benefit receipt constrain former recipients'
ability to return to welfare if they lose their jobs. This paper examines the UI
eligibility of a recent sample of welfare recipients subject to the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program rules in New Jersey who
exited welfare for work between July 1997 and June 1998.
Any changes in the employment behavior of
welfare recipients that might have taken place as a result of
the new welfare reform law are taken into account. With
respect to welfare
benefits, work-requirement rules, other program
characteristics, and caseload
characteristics, New Jersey reflects the national average
and trends.
The following questions
are addressed. What is the pattern of UI monetary eligibility since welfare exit
of former TANF recipients who have left welfare for work? How
many
qualify for UI and how long does it take them? Once they attain eligibility,
do
they move in and out of eligibility, or do they maintain
it? How do changes in the
definition of the base period affect UI eligibility? What
are reasons for job loss
among former welfare recipients? To what extent do they
leave work in ways that
are likely to make them ineligible for UI? What are the
main reasons for
non-eligibility among former welfare recipients? Is it
low wages or employment not
in the base period? Do those who find jobs quickly after
TANF entry have different
patterns of UI eligibility compared to those who find
jobs later? What does eligibility
look like for those who leave welfare for reasons other
than work?
The study used both
administrative and survey data to examine potential UI eligibility for former
welfare recipients. The study uses more recent data on employment patterns of
welfare recipients, from a period after TANF implementation and during a strong
economy. Based on these data, we find that UI eligibility rates
are
indeed higher than those found in earlier studies based on pre-TANF data.
For
instance, in an average quarter after TANF exit, between
50 to 60 percent of those
who report leaving welfare to work are monetarily
eligible for UI, compared to eligibility rates of 20 to 35 percent found using earlier
data. While welfare reform and the strong economy have led to increases in the
rates of monetary eligibility, a considerable number (nearly 40 percent) of
those who leave welfare for work still do not have such eligibility. In
addition, TANF leavers are more likely than other workers to quit their jobs,
which may also make them ineligible to receive UI.
18. The Welfare to Work Grants Program: An Evaluation Update
The 1996 establishment of the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF)
program has had a large impact on the welfare system. In
1997, the Balanced
Budget Act (BBA) authorized the U.S. Department of Labor
to award $3 billion in
Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grants to states and local
organizations for the provision of
services to the hardest-to-employ. The BBA also mandated
a National Evaluation
of the Welfare-to-work Grants Program.
This report summarizes the results of four evaluation
reports completed so far.
Preliminary evaluation findings to date are summarized based upon
characteristics
of WtW grantee agencies and the status of implementation,
program structure and
services; and employment and work activities. Early
survey responses and site
visits yielded three general findings about the
characteristics of WtW grantees and
implementation progress: 1) WtW grantee agencies are
often closely involved with
TANF services as well; 2) WtW programs are projected to
operate on a modest
scale; and 3) WtW program implementation had advanced
considerably by late
1999, but participation levels were still lagging.
General findings about the
structure of WtW programs and services are as follows: 1) most grantees aim to
serve the full WtW population, but some target special groups; 2) WtW grantees
have addressed enrollment problems with active recruiting; 3) grantees emphasize
placement in unsubsidized jobs, but set realistic
goals; 4) WtW programs emphasize employment-related services that
extend
beyond job placement; and 5) most job placements by late
1999 had been in
low-wage service jobs.
Based upon these preliminary findings and observations,
promising programs are
emerging in many WtW sites. Despite prolonged
implementation and issues
regarding eligibility criteria, staff and administrators
feel that outreach efforts
and targeting of services are enabling them to better
serve a hard-to-employ
population.
19. Nothing but Net: American Workers and the Information Economy
Nothing But Net is the fifth in a series of Work Trends
reports by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. It explores
the implications of the information economy for American workers. The report
focuses on workers' experience with computers in the workplace, workers'
perceptions about their future in the
information economy, and the role of
government in the information age. It also maps the
landscape of computer
access and use among American workers and finds distinct
categories of workers
based on their access and use of computers and the
Internet.
It concludes that there is
strong optimism about the
information economy that pervades the vast and diverse UI workforce at
every level.
The findings show that the majority of American workers
are on a computer each
day for an average of three hours, have access to a
computer at home, and use the
computer for multiple applications ranging from work
tasks to shopping on the
Internet. Workers with the greatest anxiety about the
future are
those who know they are being left out of the technology
revolution. The prevalent
use of computers among American workers seems to have
created a heightened
awareness about the potential of information technology
to solve problems in their
workplace and work lives. As the high-tech workplace
creates new demands and
challenges, Americans are turning to those very same
technologies to improve their
skills and get more control over their economic destiny.
However, despite our
nation's digital and economic prosperity, one-fifth of
all workers have not used a
computer in the last month and approximately 35% of all
workers lack access at
home. Thus, it appears that continued economic expansion
for the country and
individual prosperity depend on workers' ability to use
computers, the
Internet, and other technology applications
effectively.
20. Project Quest: San Antonio's Systematic Approach to Workforce Development
This paper presents a brief overview of the origins of
Project QUEST and discusses
the program's structure, its dual customer focus and its
role in San Antonio's
economic development strategy. It also explores the key
collaborations and funding
relationships that make it possible for QUEST to operate
as an effective labor
market intermediary for the city of San Antonio, Texas.
Project QUEST (quality
employment through skills training) is a sectoral initiative that began
providing San Antonio's unemployed and low-income residents with employment
training and job placement services in 1993. The program represented a real
turning point in San Antonio's approach to workforce development in the way that
workforce is conceived of and funded. QUEST currently targets 3 industry
sectors: (1) health services; (2) business systems/information technology; and
(3) maintenance, repair and overhaul. Occupations are targeted based on their
demand by local firms. Selection criteria also include wage rate, availability
of benefits, and career
mobility potential.
QUEST is funded primarily through local government and
city officials clearly think
of its contributions to training and human development as
part of the city's
economic development strategy, QUEST invests city funds
directly in people with
low skills and low income, and puts pressure on the
existing educational institutions to provide the caliber of training
that employers demand. QUEST contributes to raising the
city's standard of living and quality of life,
and at the same time enhances the city's ability to
attract and retain businesses
that rely on a skilled workforce.
One of the challenges ahead for Project QUEST will be the
degree to which it can
rely on its well-developed methods of service as it seeks
to serve greater numbers
of individuals. Project QUEST has considered working with
individuals who need
more intensive remedial services. Expanding up and down
the education spectrum,
however, will bring new organizational challenges.
Project QUEST is also currently
considering whether and how it should modify its approach
to performance
tracking if it begins working with individuals whose
needs for remedial education
are greater than those of the population it currently
serves.
21. Closing the Gap; How Sectoral Workforce Development Programs Benefit the Working Poor
Sectoral employment programs seek to improve
opportunities for low-income
individuals within a specific industry sector. Sectoral
programs target an occupation
or a set of occupations within the targeted sector and
employ a set of strategies
that address issues on both the supply side and the
demand side of the labor
market. All of these programs provide training to
participants.
This report discusses the
findings from a longitudinal survey of participants in sectoral employment
training programs. The survey is part of the investigation of sectoral
strategies being undertaken by the Sectoral Employment Development Learning
Project (SEDLP). SEDLP was launched in April of 1997 and is expected to be
completed by December of 2001. The project involves three components: the
sectoral studies, a series of case studies; the Participant Study, a
longitudinal survey of participants; and the Program Monitoring Profile, a
statistical profile of the participating agencies. This report discusses
the findings to date from the
Participant Study. This report examines what participants
report about their
earnings, employment situation, and experiences with the
training program
one year after participants completed the program.
Participant outcomes show that participants made
significant strides in the labor
market, reporting higher annual earnings and earnings per
hour, higher employment rates, increased
hours of work, and improved job satisfaction and job quality. Specifically,
participants reported an average increase of $7,203 in their annual earnings.
Among respondents who were employed both before and after training, median
annual individual earnings increased 64% from $8,580 to $14,040. Non-incumbent
participants worked an average of 805 more hours during the year after training.
In the year following training, 94% of respondents reported having worked at
some point. Seventy eight percent of participants reported that they had access
to employer provided health insurance in the year after training compared to 50
percent in the baseline year. Among all participants, average earning per hour
at their main job increased by 30 percent ($1.72 per hour) during the year after
training.
22. Connecting the Dots in the Service Constellations of the Rural Universe
This inquiry creates a
rural context for thinking about comprehensive service integration in rural
areas by identifying the facilitators of and barriers to service integration as
they have developed in response to the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 and the Workforce Investment Act
(WIA) of 1998. Many of the features of service integration and factors
influencing the way service integration occurs in rural areas are unknown. With
the implementation of PRWORA and WIA there is new impetus to
evaluate how the
rural community is meeting the needs of its job seekers and
employers against the backdrop of new legislation
intended to provide universal
access to comprehensive services through a coordinated
information and service
delivery system.
A survey of 42 rural
counties of New York State, two case studies, and seven mini-case studies
indicate that rurality influences service integration in relation to the role of
the organizations' culture and capacity; soft skill development of job seekers;
and other services to meet the holistic needs of customers, service delivery,
and strategies for overcoming barriers specific to rural areas. Based upon the
results of the survey and interviews, rurality was the most highly ranked
facilitator of and barrier to service integration. It was apparent from the
survey results and informants that culture influences staff and staff influences
the factors of service integration. Staff capacity was found to create an
invisible infrastructure that transcends specific initiatives, time, levels of
funding, economic well-being, and specific needs of individuals living in rural
areas, and helps to compensate for
the lack of infrastructure found in more highly populated areas.
The most significant finding of this inquiry was the identification of
a rural framework upon which to address customer needs,
legislation and regulations
in rural areas.
23. Promoting Women's Workforce Security: Findings from IWPR Research on
Unemployment Insurance and Job Training
Women's workforce
attachment is becoming increasingly similar to men's, with rising labor force
participation rates and overall occupational diversification. However, many
factors impede women's ability to achieve the same employment-based economic
security that men experience. This paper examines two areas in which public
policies, although gender-neutral on their face, reinforce obstacles to women's
success in achieving economic self-sufficiency: the Unemployment Insurance
System and job training for low-income women. Specifically, this paper discusses
findings of two IWPR research projects that examine how gender bias is
institutionalized and how it affects women's workforce security. For example,
one project investigates women's experiences with the
Unemployment
Insurance system, both historically and in as it currently functions.
The other project uses a case study approach to shed
light on the potential of job
training programs to increase low-income women's
earnings.
Conclusions show that
women have developed new patterns of labor market involvement over the last 40
years. Women now make up almost half the workforce, and women provide nearly
two-fifths of families' total income. They have made significant changes in
their economic roles in response to contemporary economic and social conditions.
The labor market and government policies have failed to
evolve along with
this revolution in women's lives. Policymakers have yet to acknowledge that the
influx of women into the workforce has created new and legitimate needs for
programs and policies that strengthen caregivers' economic security, nor have
they accepted responsibility for ensuring that women's employment opportunities
are the same as men's. Until women's experiences are legitimated and defined as
one norm for "ideal workers,” programs such as UI and job training for
low-income women will not offer the workforce security that women need and have
earned. The eligibility criteria incorporated into many states'
unemployment
insurance programs create barriers for employed caregivers and
workers with low earnings. Job training programs may
mirror occupational
sex-stereotyping that impedes women's access to
higher-wage jobs.
24. The Temporary Staffing Industry and U.S. Labor Markets: Implications for the
Unemployment Insurance System
This paper explores the
implications of worksite employers' increasing use of
temporary-agency
workers for the continued effectiveness of UI systems in
deterring temporary layoffs. It reviews the efficacy of
experience-rated UI tax
systems for discouraging temporary layoffs. It also
examines the role of the
Temporary Staffing Industry (TSI) in employers'
flexibility strategies and an analysis
of the extent to which the TSI has relieved worksite
employers of
responsibilities for compensating unemployed workers. The
report also presents
policy recommendations aimed at bolstering the
effectiveness of UI in discouraging
chronic, temporary layoffs.
The data presented show that temporary staffing agencies
became the primary and
last employer of a growing proportion of UI claimants
during the last decade.
According to these estimates, UI weeks claimed by workers
employed primarily by
employment service agencies increased by nearly 60
percent while in every other
major industry group, UI weeks claimed declined by
anywhere from 16 percent to
47 percent. The change in weeks claimed in industries
representing the last
employer of UI claimants followed a similar pattern. The
data also reveals that the
distribution of the costs of compensating the unemployed
is shifting across
industries, primarily in the direction of the TSI.
The authors recommend that to remedy the failure of UI
policy to respond adequately to rising unemployment rates of workers placed by
the TSI, states should revise UI policy instruments to internalize the UI
related costs of laying off temporary agency workers into the operating budgets
of worksite employers. Under such a policy, state would charge UI claims made by
temporary workers to the accounts of worksite employers where they held their
last or primary job assignment. It is also suggested that temporary staffing
agencies could continue to perform all payroll functions for their clients and
shoulder the legal and financial responsibility for other areas of employment
and labor law. It is also suggested that states should address the low UI
recipiency rates faced by temporary agency workers by altering eligibility
requirements. States should target inherent biases against unemployed temporary
agency workers in UI rules that relate to earnings thresholds, benefit levels,
and the definition of a voluntary quit. Finally, it is
recommended that states should
allow temporary agency workers the opportunity
to seek permanent work and still claim unemployment
compensation even if
temporary assignments are available.
25. Employer Provided Training and Public Policy
Attach 1 (Tables)
Education and training investments are critical to the
continuation of healthy US
productivity growth and to attaining adequate incomes for
workers. Unfortunately,
employer investments in worker training often fall short
of the socially desirable
level. This paper begins with a discussion of selected
theoretical issues regarding
private sector training then examines actual trends. The
empirical sections focus on
the following questions:
1) What is the incidence of employer provided training
overall and by size of
employer?
2) Are employers
increasing the amounts of training they sponsor?
3) Which workers receive employer-provided training?
4) What kinds of training do employers provide? What
types of employers provide
the most training?
Data are compared on the incidence and intensity of
employer provided training from
the 1997 National Employer Survey, the 1995 Survey of
Employer Provided Training
and the 1995 National Household Education Survey.
Findings show that in general,
a large percentage of establishments--approximately 70
percent--provide some form of formal training, and between 35 and 65 percent of all workers receive
formal training. These estimates are higher than those found in previous
literature. Some evidence for
the commonly cited result that workers with higher levels
of education and higher
earnings receive more training was also found.
Conclusions also showed that the
intensity of training is higher for young, part-time, and
less experienced workers.
The paper also briefly discusses implications for training policy. First, there is
some evidence that if all training were left up to the private sector and these
private sector training patterns continue, it can be expected that training gaps
will continue to widen between highly educated and less educated workers. The
second implication from the empirical evidence is that, even in the absence of a
comprehensive vocational credential system in the US, many workers already
receive employer-provided training, and some workers receive intensive training.
Although the data offer hope that there is scope for additional training or for
improving the benefits of training by improving structural foundations for
training, it issuggested that there is a need to find out more about the
employers providing training, the workers that receive it and the ways of
encouraging both.
26. The Emerging Workforce of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities: Preliminary Study
of Entrepreneurship in Iowa
This paper is the first in
a series exploring one point on the continuum of
employment and
entrepreneurial activity. The investigation examines how
self-employment expands employment opportunities and
improves quality of life for
people with disabilities in Iowa. The goals of this
initial study are three-fold: 1) to
foster a meaningful and productive dialogue about
self-employment and
entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities; 2) to
raise awareness about
entrepreneurs with disabilities' work capacities,
qualifications, and value to the
American economy; and 3) to enhance effective and fair
implementation of public
and private initiatives that promote entrepreneurial
opportunities for individuals with
disabilities.
The centerpiece of the article is an exploratory study of
Iowa's Entrepreneurs with
Disabilities (EWD) program. A subsidiary goal is to
provide a descriptive sketch of
the EWD program and its entrepreneurs by identifying
characteristics of the
program. These goals were pursued through three initial
investigations. The findings
in these investigations raise myriad questions and
generate hypotheses warranting
study. It is suggested that the economic effects of
public and private employment
initiatives on labor force participation and pursuit of
self-employment must be
examined. Despite encouraging trends, it is also
suggested that further trends must
examine the causes of high unemployment levels facing
persons with disabilities.
27. Lessons for WIA Assessments from the New Jersey Workforce Development
Partnership Program
Training programs are one
set of governmental interventions employed to aid workers in their search for
employment security. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 has important effects
on all training interventions, including the process of evaluation and funding
of individual training accounts and employer-provided customized training
programs. The New Jersey Workforce Development Partnership (WDP) program,
created in 1993 and funded by a portion of existing tax revenues collected from
the Unemployment Insurance payroll tax, provides $9 million per year in training
vouchers for dislocated workers and $15 million per year to support
employer-provided training efforts. The Heldrich Center for Workforce
Development at Rutgers University has completed a comprehensive evaluation of
both programs using multiple methodologies to measure wage and employment
impacts. These impacts were measured by using UI wage records, a comparison
group, telephone
surveys and site visits. The study summarizes the results of this
evaluation and
discusses relevant lessons for the implementation of WIA
and workforce security
programs across the country.
The Individual Training Grant program of WDP provides
training vouchers worth $4,000 to
dislocated workers. Results of the evaluation and the
additional analysis
demonstrate that while individual grants are somewhat
effective in aiding dislocated
workers' wage recovery, using UI wage records is an
incomplete strategy for
evaluation. Comparison group analyses and telephone
interviews supply additional
comparative benchmarking, leading to a more accurate
measure of increased
workforce security than would have occurred without the
intervention.
The Customized Training (CT) grant program of WDP
provides grants to firms and
consortia of firms to assist them in training of their
employees. The evaluation
surveyed firms that received grants, individuals who
received training through the program and
conducted in-depth case studies of selected grant recipients. Results of the
evaluation and the additional analysis demonstrate that customized training
programs can be an effective strategy for providing training to individuals with
low levels of formal education who had previously received little formal
training. Participation in the CT
program also led to increases in firm-
provided training after the grant-funded activities have
been completed.
The evaluation of the New Jersey CT program demonstrates
that customized training can be an effective strategy for providing training for incumbent workers who
have little access to other forms of training. First, New Jersey successfully
targeted the CT grants to small and medium size firms (with less than 1,000
employees) in the manufacturing sector that would not have otherwise invested in
training. Second, the CT grant program gave individuals with lower levels of
formal education an
opportunity to receive training and upgrade their skill levels. The vast
majority (82
percent) of firms that received a CT grant provided
training primarily to individuals
with a high school diploma or less. Nearly nine in ten
individuals who received
on-the-job training reported in the telephone survey that
they were satisfied with the
training they received. Finally, there is some evidence
that firms
provided training to more employees and on a more
frequent basis than they did
before they participated in the CT program.
There are several lessons raised by the evaluation of the
New Jersey
Workforce Development Partnership program that are
important in the discussion of
implications of WIA. First, training can be an effective
strategy for assisting
dislocated workers to find employment. In particular,
women and individuals with
lower levels of formal education benefit more from the
ITG program than other
individuals. The evaluation of the CT program
demonstrates that customized
training, allowable under the Workforce Investment Act,
can be an effective strategy
for providing training to incumbent workers who have
limited opportunity to upgrade
their skills. Second, reliance on administrative and UI
wage
records has several important caveats. Until the states
are able to easily share UI
records, the data will underreport employment and
earnings.
Third, workers who participate in dislocated worker
programs are inherently different
than those who do not. Likewise, outcomes for education,
race and gender
differences must be considered. Finally, training
benefits are not always realized in
the limited time frame that is used by the WIA goals.
Analyses should include
evaluation of longer as well as shorter time frames for
wage recovery and
employment rates.
28. Community Jobs-Outcomes Assessment and Program Evaluation
Attach 1 (Tables)
The new era of welfare
reform emphasizing the movement from welfare to work began in 1996 with the
passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
(PRWORA). The PRWORA abolished entitlements to public assistance, created
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and gave primary responsibility to
the states to develop new methods for encouraging
welfare
recipients to work. Community Jobs (CJ), a component of WorkFirst,
Washington State's welfare reform, set a precedent as the
first and still the largest
wage based public job creation program for
"hard-to-employ" TANF recipients. CJ is
intended to provide valuable work experience and training
to move individuals out of
poverty, create public jobs, and benefit communities. The
Office of Trade and
Economic Development first implemented CJ in June
1998.
The Economic Opportunity Institute and the Northwest
Policy Center began
collaborating on a program outcome assessment and
evaluation in January 2000 to
understand this unique program's progress toward
achieving its goals.
Unemployment Insurance wage data were collected to assess
employment, job
retention, and wage progression for individuals leaving
the Community Jobs
program.
Surveys and focus group data were collected to evaluate the quality and
performance of the most significant components of CJ
through feedback from key
stakeholders: program participants, CJ contractors and
worksite supervisors.
The data collected suggest that participants gain
personal and long-term
employment benefits from Community Jobs. Although these
data show that people
value work, they also clearly show the complications of
resolving the employment
issues that previously prevented these individuals form
keeping a job. Reviewing all
of the data in this evaluation, it is clear that this
already valuable program can be
significantly improved.
Recommendations to more fully achieve program goals
include providing ongoing
hands-on job readiness training and vocational skills
training within the context of
work experience, strengthening and refocusing services in
the last three months
of community jobs to support participant preparation and
transition to unsubsidized
employment, implementing a retention services component
that continues to
provide some level of support and follow-through for
community job graduates in
unsubsidized employment, and creating a permanent
evaluation system to support
continuous improvement.
29. Customer Choice or Business as Usual? Promoting Innovation in the Design of
WIA Training Programs Through the Individual Training Account Experiment
The Workforce Investment
Act (WIA) of 1998 is bringing about substantial changes in the way training and
other employment services are provided to U.S. Department of Labor customers. A
key WIA element is the requirement that workforce investment areas establish
Individual Training Accounts (ITAs), which provide vouchers that customers can
use to pay for training. ITAs are intended to transform the delivery of services
to adults and dislocated workers by ensuring that customers can choose the
training they need. At the same time, WIA gives states and local areas a great
deal of flexibility in setting the value of ITAs to maximize
customer access to training and
deciding how much guidance and direction they provide to customers as they
formulate training decisions. Given the flexibility provided by WIA, state and
local officials must decide how to administer ITAs most effectively to their
customers. This paper presents the design for the ITA Experiment, which is being
implemented in six sites with support from the DOL. It describes the approaches
to be tested, the principal motivations for selecting these approaches, and the
policy questions that will be addressed by the experiment's results. In
particular, the ITA Experiment should help guide future
training
policy by rigorously testing alternative ITA approaches with the potential
to
lead to different training choices, employment and
earnings outcomes, returns on
investment, and customer satisfaction.
30. Wisconsin Employment Transportation Assistance Program (WETAP)
The Wisconsin Departments of Workforce Development (DWD)
and Transportation
(DOT) jointly sponsor the Wisconsin Employment
Transportation Assistance
Program (WETAP). This program integrates DOT's state
funded Transportation
Demand Management (TDM) program, DWD's federal Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Employment Transportation program, and the Federal
Transit Administration (FTA) Job
Access Commute (JARC) program into one, coordinated
application process.
The goal of the program is to coordinate federal and
state resources for
employment transportation into one program featuring a
single application process.
The objectives are to help low-income people access,
retain, or advance in
employment.
DOT/DWD created a WETAP Solicitation for Grant
Applications (SGA), which was
mailed statewide to interested stakeholders throughout
the state and posted on
DWD's website. Twenty-two applications were submitted to
DWD/DOT for the
WETAP Program, representing 49 Counties and one Tribe.
The applications
represented over $9.66 million in funding requests, of
which the state was able to
fund just over $6.12 million.
The
WETAP program has positioned Wisconsin in the lead with regard to employment
transportation planning, coordination, and service implementation. DOT/DWD plans
to continue the partnership that has been formed, and to expand it to other
agencies that have transportation resources or needs. Coordination of resources
is the key in ensuring that the entire population's transportation needs are met
in spite of challenges and funding program restrictions. The second cycle of the
WETAP program is under way with applications due to the state by March 30, 2001,
and contracts expected to commence on July 1, 2001 through June 30,
2002.
The state has received notice of a $4.7 million earmark in JARC funds and
intends to again use TANF and TDM funds as match. With
the larger earmark, the
state is requiring applicants to provide a minimum local
match of 20% of program
costs, as no additional funds are available through TANF
and TDM. The challenge
to meet funding requests for auto-related projects will
continue as needs in rural
areas continue to grow.
31. Social Capital and Retraining Policies
Why some employers churn
their workforce--laying off current workers and hiring new ones with different
skills when jobs or skill requirements change -- while other employers retain
and then retain theirs is an important question affecting job security. The
arguments below examine the question and find that retaining is driven by the
goal of preserving the social capital among current employees, capital that is
generated by specific systems of work organization. Alternative explanations --
that retaining is just an employee benefit driven by
employer
paternalism or is simply part of overall strategy of investment in training
--
are tested and rejected.
The results extend our
understanding of the role of social capital in organizational
decision making. The results
strongly support the hypothesis that employers are
more likely to retain employees when they make use of
work systems that rely on
social capital. The results provide somewhat mixed
support for the hypothesis that
retraining is higher where establishments have greater
fixed employment costs.
A new challenge to job security appears to be
organizational
restructuring of the kind that cause some employers to
"churn" their workforce,
laying off old workers with redundant skills and hiring
new ones. Retaining
redundant employees to handle the new positions
represents an alternative
approach that seems to be a crucial component of efforts
to stabilize jobs. The
decision to retain does not appear to be related either
to the use of other progressive
employment policies nor to decisions about overall
investments in
training.
32. Re-examining the Potential Role of Unemployment Insurance as a Safety Net for
Workers at Risk of Public Assistance Receipt
This paper builds on previous literature by providing
more recent evidence on the
degree to which vulnerable workers would likely qualify
for unemployment
insurance in the event they lose their jobs. The paper
examines the likelihood of
meeting both monetary and non-monetary eligibility
criteria among workers at risk
of public assistance receipt, as well as the potential
importance of extending
eligibility to part-time workers. The analysis is based
on longitudinal data covering
work experience and public assistance receipt for 1996 to
1997.
Taken together, the findings indicate that proposed UI
reforms covering
part-time work could significantly increase benefit
eligibility for at-risk workers. The
analysis strongly suggests that a majority of at-risk,
part-time workers
could meet the monetary requirements. Also, there is some
evidence that many
would continue to seek part-time rather than full-time
work in the event
they became unemployed, although this cannot be measured
directly. These
findings reflect the potential impact of UI reforms in
states that do not already have
similar provisions.
These findings suggest
that most workers at-risk of public assistance receipt would accumulate
sufficient work and wages to meet the monetary requirements for UI
benefits
if they were to become unemployed. However, one fifth would have
difficulty, particularly meeting the high quarter and
base period earnings
requirement. The analysis presented provides a clear
indication that workers at-risk
of public assistance receipt may be left without a safety
net if they find themselves
between jobs. The implications of these results for the
Unemployment Insurance
program are less straightforward. It will depend somewhat
on the extent to which
workers who do appear to be available for or seeking work
are considered part of the
labor force and part of the mission of the UI
program.
33. Unemployment Compensation and Older Workers
Unemployment compensation
in the United States is provided through a federal-state system of unemployment
insurance (UI). UI provides temporary partial
wage
replacement to active job seekers who are involuntarily out of work. For
older
workers, UI is an important source of income security and
a potential influence on
work incentives.
For many, the transition from full-time work in a career
job to retirement is voluntary
and orderly. For others, job displacement greatly
disrupts plans. The transition
often involves many intermediate steps. The chain of
transitions may include
full-or-part-time work on another job, which most often
is not in the same industry
and occupation (a bridge job). There may also be movement
between bridge jobs,
perhaps back for a bridge job to a career job, and
finally a gradual movement into
full retirement while out of the labor force.
Many issues at the forefront of current UI policy debate
are also issues of prime
importance to those in the second half of their working
life. Issues occur in all the
standard areas of UI policy: coverage, eligibility,
benefit adequacy, duration of
benefits, work incentives, benefit financing, and
interaction with other programs.
This paper provides a brief background sketch of the
labor market situation of older
workers to examine issues of prime concern to older
workers in these areas of UI
policy.
Our
survey of policy issues suggests that changes in UI rules concerning initial
eligibility, continuing eligibility, wage replacement, and partial benefits
should all be examined to evaluate effect on the likely employment, and partial
benefits should all be examined to evaluate effects on the likely employment
patterns of older workers. Particular attention should be given to UI features
affecting the choice of
self-employment, part-time work, seasonal
work, and agricultural jobs.
The financing consequences of possible UI program changes
should also be
estimated, as should the macroeconomic impact of
broadening recipiency. UI
program features that would promote flexible and extended
labor force
participation by older workers should also enrich the
employment choice
environment for other workers. Therefore, it would be
useful to examine the impact
of such program changes on UI as built-in stabilizer of
aggregate expenditures.
While younger workers are usually committed to long-term
participation in the labor
force, older citizens are often more flexible in choosing
to use their time. Worsening
labor shortage conditions in the United States mean that
efforts to retain older
workers in the labor force will intensify. The current
and potential influence of UI on
the income security and labor force participation of
older workers should be better
understood.
34. Improving Outcomes in Washington's Workfirst Program: Are Post-Employment Services the Answer?
Washington State's welfare
reform has enjoyed high-level political visibility at times over the past four
years. WorkFirst was developed in early-1997 in the aftermath of the
passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996.
Legislative discussion of the program, for the most part,
has focused on whether
the program's performance measures are appropriate and on
how the program has
performed according to competing measures. WorkFirst's
statutory framework is
supported by principles that have guided the program's
development through these
four years. These can be summarized as follows: WorkFirst
is about personal
responsibility, not just about transferring income;
entry-level employment should be
the first rung on a job ladder, not the first steps on a
poverty treadmill; everyone
who can work should; WorkFirst is for poor working
families, not just TANF
participants; and WorkFirst is a performance-driven
program. These principles are
incorporated in measures that guide program policy and
management.
The WorkFirst study is based on a survey of 3000
participants from 1998-2000, supplemented with data from administrative
records. The report finds the following. 1) Average
wages for workers have steadily increased from $7.20 in
March 1999 to $7.80 in
June 2000. WorkFirst participants who work are much
better off than those who do
not, and those who work more are better off than those
who work less. 2) The
average family income of WorkFirst participants who
worked throughout the year
was, by February and March 2000, nearly $1,000 per month
above those of
families where the participants did not work at all. 3)
Employment increased by
more than 10 percentage points over the study period.
35. A Frontline Decision Support for WIA One-Stop Centers
The Workforce Investment
Act (WIA) of 1998 emphasizes the integration and coordination of employment
services. Central to achieving this aim is the federal requirement that local
areas receiving WIA funding must establish one-stop centers, where providers of
various services within a local labor market are assembled in one location. A
major challenge facing staff in these centers is the expected large volume of
customers resulting from relaxed program eligibility rules.
Nonetheless, resources for assessment and counseling are limited, and
front-line
staff have few tools to help them make referral
decisions.
The U.S. Department of Labor is working with the W.E.
Upjohn Institute for
Employment Research to develop and pilot test a Frontline
Decision Support
System (FDSS) for workforce development staff in one-stop
centers. The goal of
FDSS is to assist staff in quickly assessing and properly
targeting services to
customers. FDSS tools are being tested in new WIA
operating systems in the
states of Georgia and Washington. This paper reports on
the strategy, tools, and
implementation efforts in the pilot states. FDSS is
comprised of two main modules:
(1) systematic job search, and (2) service referral.
The systematic job search
module is a means to undertake a structured search of vacancy
listings. The module informs job seekers about their prospects for returning to
a job like their prior one, provides a realistic assessment of likely
reemployment earnings, and identifies occupations related to the prior one. The
first component is called the industry transition component. It provides an
estimate of the likelihood that a customer can find a job in their prior
industry. The second component provides
a realistic assessment of likely reemployment compensation levels. This
feature relies on an earnings algorithm that is a
statistical model based on
personal characteristics, work history, prior earnings,
and educational attainment to
predict earnings upon reemployment. The third component
is the
related-occupations algorithm. The algorithm offers
individuals who have exhausted
job prospects within their prior occupation a list of
other occupations that are
similar to their prior occupation.
The second module of FDSS
is the service referral algorithm. The primary purpose is to identify the
sequence of activities that most often leads to successful employment. The
service referral module uses information about the characteristics and outcomes
of individuals who have recently participated in and completed core,
intensive,
and training services. This information is used to estimate the statistical
relationships between personal attributes and outcomes.
This algorithm has to
basic components. The first is an estimate of a person's
employability, or
combinations of services, that lead to successful
outcomes. By conditioning these
paths on the employability of a specific customer, the
algorithm can offer estimates
of the effectiveness of various programs for individuals
with specific measurable
characteristics.
