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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219- 8211.
In the current policy-making environment, few things are
more important than straight talk and hard data. That's especially true when it
comes to one of the most urgent and difficult challenges that face us --
reversing the long-term trend toward stagnating and even declining wages for a
broad range of American workers.
The attached report assembles and reviews hard evidence on
what works to improve worker earnings and what does not. What's Working (and
What's Not): A Review of Evidence on the Economic Impacts of Employment and
Training Programs is not an advocacy piece, but a comprehensive review of the
scholarly literature on which education and training programs have worked,
which have not, and the results produced by education and training efforts.
Written under the direction of two of America's finest labor economists, it
meets rigorous professional standards and relies on careful non-partisan
studies. The evidence uncovered in this review has helped shape the
Administration's thinking about many issues, and we hope you'll find the
results illuminating as well.
Here are some of the highlights from those results:
- There is now overwhelming evidence that a year or more of
post-secondary training produces positive impacts for those who need new
skills.
- Short-term training -- especially for disadvantaged youth -- has a
mixed record of success.
- Government training for disadvantaged adults produces positive
impacts and is often a cost-effective investment for society. However, training
alone is often not sufficient to lift disadvantaged adults out of poverty.
- The government's major long-term training program for disadvantaged
youth -- the Job Corps -- appears to produce solid benefits for participants
and for society.
- Job-search assistance has produced positive results for most of the
populations for whom it has been tried, and is a highly cost-effective
investment for government.
The Clinton Administration has responded to these findings
in a number of ways. For example, our new Middle Class Bill of Rights will for
the first time give all displaced workers the option to enter into long-term
training, instead of the traditional short-term training approach. We've made
many strides toward reform of government training for youth as well by shifting
funding toward programs which have shown solid evidence of success and by
passing a school-to-work bill which builds on the lessons learned from training
that works. And our overhaul of the Unemployment Insurance system has focused
on making greater use of job search assistance.
The upcoming year will see many debates about the value of
education and training. It's important that we conduct these debates using the
best possible evidence. I believe you'll find this report to be a useful
guide.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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