WIOA Titles I and III National Performance Summary

Program Year 2019

(July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020)

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) establishes performance accountability indicators and performance reporting requirements to assess the effectiveness of states and local areas in achieving positive outcomes for individuals served by the workforce development and education systems’ six core programs. These six core programs are the Adult, Dislocated Worker (DW), and Youth programs, authorized under WIOA title I and administered by the Department of Labor (DOL); the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) program, authorized under WIOA title II and administered by the Department of Education (ED); the Employment Service program authorized under the Wagner- Peyser Act, as amended by WIOA title III and administered by DOL; and the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program authorized under title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by WIOA title IV and administered by ED. WIOA has provided a historic opportunity to align performance-related definitions, streamline performance indicators, integrate reporting, and ensure comparable data collection and reporting across all six of these core programs, while also implementing program-specific requirements related to data collection and reporting.

Program Year (PY) 2019 is the fourth year state grantees reported performance information under WIOA performance accountability provisions. Individual performance records were submitted by title I and title III grantees to DOL using the Participant Individual Record Layout (PIRL) (ETA-9172) and the results were certified by states using the WIOA Statewide Performance Report (ETA-9169). WIOA section 116(d)(2) requires states to report on outcomes achieved on the primary indicators of performance, including outcomes achieved by individuals with barriers to employment; characteristics of participants; and other information, such as numbers of participants who received training and/or career services, and the average cost per participant of those services.

This summary reflects the information available from the PY 2019 title I and title III program reports. PY 2019 reports for title II and title IV are available on ED's website1. The WIOA definition of participant does not include those who used only the self-service system and/or received information-only services. These individuals are referred to as Reportable Individuals and are excluded from counts of participants and from the calculation of primary indicators of performance.

PY 2019 data include information on participant characteristics and the six performance indicators: Employment Rate and Median Earnings in the 2nd Quarter after Exit, Employment Rate in the 4th Quarter after Exit, Credential Attainment, Measurable Skill Gains, and Effectiveness in Serving Employers.

The following key areas and supporting charts represent the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) high-level observations of the national WIOA titles I and III PY 2019 performance results.

2nd Quarter after Exit Performance Indicators

Figure 3 shows the PY 2017 to PY 2019 results for the Employment Rate 2nd Quarter after Exit and Median Earnings 2nd Quarter after Exit performance indicators. This is the third year that the data are available for these indicators under WIOA performance accountability provisions. The results for the Employment Rate 2nd Quarter after Exit indicator are stable across all programs. The Median Earnings 2nd Quarter after Exit results have been increasing since PY 2017.

4th Quarter after Exit Performance Indicators

Figure 4 shows the PY 2018 and PY 2019 results for the Employment Rate 4th Quarter after Exit and Credential Attainment Rate performance indicators. PY 2018 was the first year the results for these performance indicators were reported. Note that the Credential Attainment Rate is not a required performance indicator for Wagner-Peyser. ETA will continue to monitor performance on these 4th quarter indicators, especially Credential Attainment, and providing states with best practices and technical assistance to improve outcomes.

Occupational certificates are the credentials most frequently attained by WIOA Adult and Dislocated Worker program participants reported for PY 2019. For WIOA Youth, the most common credentials are secondary school diplomas (or their equivalent) and occupational certifications.

Measurable Skill Gains

Figure 5 shows the PY 2016 to PY 2019 results for the Measurable Skill Gains indicator. This is the fourth year states reported results for this indicator under WIOA performance accountability provisions. Note that Measurable Skill Gains is not a required performance indicator for Wagner-Peyser.

The significant increases each year are primarily due to the positive strides made by state grantees in data collection and reporting on this indicator. This was a new performance indicator for title I programs and ETA has provided substantial technical assistance to support state grantee reporting requirements specifically for Measurable Skill Gains. Also, the Departments made adjustments to the calculation specifications for Measurable Skill Gains in order for state grantees to more accurately report the results for the indicator. These adjustments became effective July 1, 2018 (PY 2018) and are reflected in the PY 2018 and PY 2019 results.

Effectiveness in Serving Employers

The Effectiveness in Serving Employers (ESE) indicator is a statewide aggregate indicator that represents the work done on behalf of employers by all WIOA core programs. The final specifications of this indicator are still being determined. In PY 2019 states were required to report data for two of the three potential indicator specifications being piloted. The three pilot indicators are: Retention with Same Employer Rate, Employer Penetration Rate, and Repeat Business Customers Rate.

Figure 6 shows the number of states that reported on each of the three pilot indicators in PY 2019.

Figure 7 shows the results for the ESE indicators that were reported in PY 2019.

Types of Barriers to Employment

Figure 10 shows the number of participants with select types of barriers to employment for the WIOA title I programs as defined in section 3 of WIOA.

Low-income is the barrier reported most often by all programs, followed by Single Parenting for Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Wagner-Peyser participants and English Language Learners/Low Levels of Literacy/Cultural Barriers for Youth participants. In the Adult program, which had a total of 357,558 participants in PY 2019, 58.2% of participants reported a Low-income barrier. The changes in counts of participants with select barriers to employment align with changes in the count of total participants and the proportions of each barrier reported by participants have been fairly stable.

Figure 11 shows the number of participants with select types of barriers to employment for the Wagner-Peyser program.

Reportable Individuals

Figure 12 shows the total count of Reportable Individuals in PY 2018 and PY 2019. Reportable Individuals are those individuals who engaged with the workforce development system by accessing self-services, receiving information-only services or activities, or those who did not complete program requirements for eligibility or participation.

ETA made adjustments to collection specifications related to Reportable Individuals by clarifying the definition and adding codes in the reporting specifications to better identify them for each program. These adjustments became effective July 1, 2018 (PY 2018) and are reflected in the reporting beginning in PY 2018. The number of Reportable Individuals more than doubled across all title I and III programs from PY 2018 to PY 2019.

Performance Data Availability

WIOA Primary Indicator of Performance First Program Year of Complete Performance Data:

  • Employment Rate 2nd Quarter after Exit - PY 2017
  • Median Earnings 2nd Quarter after Exit - PY 2017
  • Employment Rate 4th Quarter after Exit - PY 2018
  • Credential Attainment Rate - PY 2018
  • Measurable Skill Gains - PY 2016
  • Effectiveness in Serving Employers - TBD (Subject to determination of final definition of indicator)

Data Sources

Sources:

  1. PY 2019 Q4 WIOA State Performance Records
  2. PY 2018 Q4 WIOA State Performance Records
  3. PY 2017 Q4 WIOA State Performance Records
  4. PY 2016 Q4 WIOA State Performance Records

  1. PY 2019 performance information for WIOA titles II and IV can be found at the following links:
    Title II: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/accountability-reporting.html#spr
    Title IV: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/rsa/wioa/vr-annual-reports/index.html