Selected Public Workforce Development Programs in the United States: Lessons Learned for Older Workers

Abstract

In BriefThe public workforce system emerged in the Great Depression.The first two pillars of the system-the public Employment Service and Unemployment Insurance-were established by the 1933 Wagner-Peyser Act and the 1935 Social Security Act, respectively.Federally funded and locally delivered job skills training began mostly in the 1960s.Control of programs remains unchanged under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014.Employees of state-run Employment Services and public and private service providers of locally run workforce investment boards deliver services at approximately 2,500 American Job Centers.Since the 1980s, the public workforce system has decreased staff-assisted job search assistance and substituted automated self-serve systems.Decreasing budgets, less state and local staff, and higher workloads abetted the movement to automated solutions.Today, a decreasing percentage of counseling, job matching, and job development services are staff-assisted.American Job Centers do not currently have dedicated staff specializing in job development and job placement for older workers.Evaluations of low-cost, staff-assisted employment services have shown them to be effective.Job skills training evaluations have produced mixed evidence of the training's effects on employment and earnings.Training often has been found to be more effective for women than men.Rigorous evaluations of the training of disadvantaged adult workers and of sectoral training programs have had encouraging results.The most effective types of job training tend to be on-the-job training, customized training, and targeted classroom skill training.Some policy options to increase the availability and effectiveness

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