This book reviews the effectiveness of job training programs in the United States, concentrating on the most recent and most sophisticated evaluations. Chapter 1 identifies seven differences between education and job training. Chapter 2 describes the types of job training programs that are examined. Chapter 3 outlines the preferred methodology in recent evaluation, random assignment, and clarifies both its strengths and its weaknesses. Chapter 4 presents a series of results, first for job training programs, then for welfare-to-work programs, and finally for special experimental programs. Chapter 5 discusses the outcomes of job training programs in regard to different population groups, different types of service, the effects of programs over time, and different programs. The last section presents some recent cost-benefit analyses to examine whether job training programs are "worth doing." A series of tables drawn from the major evaluations shows their results. Chapter 6 presents a series of possible explanations for the weak results of job training programs. It takes the point of view that many problems originate in the separation of job training from education. Chapter 7 presents a vision of how job training programs could be structured to avoid these reasons for failure and clarifies how reforms proposed for the education system might benefit job training programs as well. Appendixes contain chapter notes, 23 references, and an index. (YLB)