CEO Library

Registered apprenticeship provides an opportunity to help strengthen rural workforce development and labor markets by training the rural workforce for local industry needs. This brief describes approaches to promoting rural apprenticeship expansion based on discussion with state apprenticeship administrators, local apprenticeship partners, and employers in seven states.

Employers are an indispensable part of registered apprenticeship (RA) programs. Because they hire and train apprentices on the job and sponsor apprenticeship programs, state efforts to expand apprenticeship depend on outreach to and recruitment of employers. This brief describes seven states’ efforts to expand the number of employers engaging in apprenticeship programs.

Registered apprenticeship (RA) data and statistics, such as data on apprentice retention, demographics, wages, and credential attainment, can be used for reporting purposes, ongoing program monitoring and improvement efforts, and assessing apprenticeship expansion strategies. The purpose of this brief is to describe the current state approaches to apprenticeship data collection, identify promising practices and opportunity areas to improve data systems, and share ideas to support apprenticeship expansion.

This brief provides recommendations for implementing administrative data collection practices that support the research needs of federal departments and agencies. The brief describes the process and feasibility of using administrative data to conduct an implementation study of the National Construction Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) Pilot (NCSP).

Technical appendix to Exploring Unemployment Insurance (UI) Program Options for Guam: Options Brief. The appendix describes the exploratory study in depth, identifying the research questions, methodology, and limitations as well presents the data analyzed that support the information provided in the brief it supplements.

This report synthesizes findings from recent evaluations of employment-focused reentry programs to inform the Partners for Reentry Opportunities in Workforce Development (PROWD) Grants Evaluation. Building on a prior literature review of employment-focused reentry programs (Lacoe & Betesh, 2019), the PROWD Grants Evaluation synthesized recent evidence from rigorous research (randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs) published between 2018 and 2023 that examined impacts on recidivism, employment, and earnings.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) seeks to identify approaches to measure the impact of its work. The objectives of EBSA and CEO for this Health Outcomes Metrics project were to better understand the current landscape, best practices, and data sources related to approaches that federal and state agencies and the insurance industry use to estimate the impacts of their health-related enforcement actions/interventions.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded contractor Westat Insight to conduct the Vulnerable Populations Study to highlight examples of analyses that researchers and policymakers can conduct using publicly available population surveys. This report underscores the value of leveraging publicly available survey data to analyze the changing demographic landscapes of populations impacted by labor policies and programs.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded contractor Westat Insight (formerly Insight Policy Research) to conduct the Vulnerable Populations Study. Using secondary data analysis, this study aims to demonstrate the value of leveraging publicly available survey data to analyze the changing demographic landscapes of vulnerable populations impacted by labor policies and programs.

The Chief Evaluation Office of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL CEO) is committed to using innovative tools to meet the Department’s research, evaluation, and data analytics needs. In December 2021, DOL CEO commissioned the Westat Insight and American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) study team to explore potential opportunities to use machine learning methods to facilitate the automated data collection of labor-relevant data.

The report synthesizes findings from third-party evaluator (TPE)-conducted implementation evaluations and subsequent interim reports, supplemented by submitted quarterly narrative reports (QNRs) from March 2023. The synthesis aims to provide an overarching description of the first round of SCC (SCC1) grantees’ progress in implementing their workforce development and career pathways programming and highlight promising practices, implementation barriers, and lessons learned across the grantees.

In 2014, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research and ideas42 to examine whether insights from behavioral science can be used to improve outcomes in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) programs under the Advancing Behavioral Interventions in Labor Programs portfolio of studies.

The Bridging the Gap for New Americans Act, Pub. L. No. 117–210, enacted in October 2022, required the Department of Labor (DOL) to conduct a study about New Americans, defined as lawfully present immigrants and refugees admitted to the United States during the 5-year period prior to the law (October 2017– October 2022) with occupational and professional credentials and academic degrees obtained outside the United States.

The Bridging the Gap for New Americans Act, Pub. L. No. 117–210, enacted in October 2022, required the Department of Labor (DOL) to conduct a study about New Americans, defined as lawfully present immigrants and refugees admitted to the United States during the 5-year period prior to the law (October 2017– October 2022) with occupational and professional credentials and academic degrees obtained outside the United States.

The report presents the findings from a review of existing research to address topics identified in the Bridging the Gap for New Americans Act,1 Pub. L. No. 117-210, enacted in October 2022. The Act asks the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to conduct a study about lawfully present immigrants and refugees admitted to the United States during the 5-year period prior to the law (October 2017–October 2022).

The discussion paper explores issues related to research on application or user fees in programs administered by U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Employment and Training Administration (ETA), based on a review of regulations, guidance, and selected research concerning such fees. The paper reviews available literature from those sources; briefly covers the purposes, general principles and practices related to application or user fees; summarizes possible factors related to research on such fees; and suggests some possible research activities on use of fees in an ETA program.

The handbook is a Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Evaluation Technical Assistance product to help states and their evaluators to conduct cost-benefit analyses of their RESEA programs.

Appendix to the Tracking Changes in Program Implementation: Findings from Multiple Rounds of the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Implementation Survey Issue Brief.

A 2022 implementation study report drew on data from three waves of a web-based survey of all state RESEA directors. Since completion of that report, the study team conducted a fourth survey wave. Relying on these longitudinal data, this brief addresses the following research questions: 

The brief documents the federal context—in particular within the U.S. Department of Labor—in which evidence-building activities for the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program were developed. It also describes the evaluation technical assistance (EvalTA) provided to states from 2018 to 2023 that supported states in planning and implementing evaluations of their RESEA programs.

In 2023, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractor Abt Global (Abt) and its subcontractors, MDRC, Social Policy Research Associates (SPR), and Trewon Technologies, to conduct the Sectoral Strategies and Employer Engagement Portfolio Services Project (SSEEP).

The Navajo Nation Research Brief of the Black Lung Incidence Study identifies the current state of knowledge on black lung disease as it relates to coal mining and residential coal use in the Navajo Nation. It identifies prevalence rates in the U.S. counties that overlap with the Navajo Nation borders, estimates prevalence rates in those counties, and discusses data limitations specific to the Navajo Nation.

One component of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA’s) mission to “prevent death, illness, and injury from mining and promote safe and healthful workplaces for U.S. miners” is protecting coal miners and coal mining communities from black lung disease (“Mission”). In support of that mission, the literature review expands the U.S.

The report presents the findings of a literature review ad quantitative analysis conducted under the Black Lung Incidence Study. The study was designed to examine black lung incidence in the United States, exploring both cases and deaths. Within this scope, the study examined whether black lung incidence is higher among specific subpopulations of interest, including miners, mining communities, the Navajo Nation, and residents of Appalachia.

This report describes the design for the implementation evaluation of the Scaling Apprenticeship through Sector-Based Strategies grants (referred to throughout the report as Scaling Apprenticeship grants) and the Apprenticeships: Closing the Skills Gap grants (referred to throughout the report as Closing the Skills Gap grants).