DOES TRAINING FOR THE DISADVANTAGED WORK

The best evidence to date to guide the nation as to what employment and training strategies work and don't work for what groups. This book reports and interprets the findings of the largest and most rigorous evaluation ever done of employment and training programs designed to increase the employment and earnings, and reduce the dependence, of America's disadvantaged. The study of the Job Training Partnership Act programs included 16 sites across the country; a sample of over 20,000 individuals; a random- assignment experimental design; a two-year analysis period; data from specially designed surveys; and a wide range of state and local administrative records. This book measures effectiveness separately for adult men, adult women, female youth, and male youth. It finds modest successes for the first three groups but confirms the sad truth that we have yet to find a generalizable strategy that increases the labor market chances of disadvantaged young men.