In this paper we will briefly review recent trends in employment outcomes for disadvantaged youth, focusing specifically on those who have become "disconnected" from school and the labor market, and why these trends have occurred. We then review a range of policy prescriptions that might improve those outcomes. These policies include: 1)…

In this issue brief, the authors explore how former foster youth in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa are faring in the labor market and what explains the variability in employment outcomes for these youth. First, they describe trends in former foster youths' employment from age 17 to 24. Then, they consider how former foster youths' characteristics…

Discusses the debate over whether lowering youth wages would materially help the young unemployed to find jobs. The author sets out some of the theoretical and factual background to the debate, and gives references to the few serious inquiries made in the last three or four years. (CT)

The General Accounting Office (GAO) examined the long-term earnings and employment outcomes of Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) programs. Data from the National JTPA Study and annual earnings records from the Social Security Administration were used to calculate the average earnings and employment rates of four target groups (adult men, adult…

This paper presents data showing that unions have a very substantial effect on the wages of young union workers, particularly young Blacks, but that they also have a negative effect on the wages of young Blacks who are not unionized. (Author/CT)

This publication is a product of the knowledge development effort implemented under the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977. It is the second volume of an assessment of the Job Corps, which found that, overall, the Job Corps experience of training young men and women for employment has been beneficial to society, although there…

The Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects demonstration has been the most ambitious attempt thus far to determine the feasibility of using private employers to provide a work experience in a youth employment program. In establishing this demonstration, congress authorized program operators to recruit private businesses as well as the…

The Job Training Partnership Act's Out-of-School Youth program (OSY) was audited to determine whether participants' reported outcomes for positive terminations were accurate and fully documented and what impact program interventions had on participants' post-program earnings. Program services and outcomes were audited for 499 OSY participants at…

This report provides a summary of six summative evaluation studies that were implemented and completed between 1999 and 2002. The evaluations were conducted on three different streams of Canada's Youth Employment Strategy (YES). The Youth Employment Strategy was introduced by the federal government in 1997 to address employment related challenges…

This book looks at the issue of youth unemployment and examines policy responses. Part I considers the youth unemployment problem. Chapter 1 is an overview, covering size of the problem and the close relationship between youth and adult unemployment. Chapter 2 examines youth unemployment characteristics and distribution of unemployment across…

This book discusses the evolution of workfare policies in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Chapter 1 defines the term "workfare" and examines the concepts of transnationalizing workfare and workfarist labor regulation. Chapter 2 establishes workfare's theoretical context and explores the relationship between welfare…

The question of whether the Job Corps's impacts on students' employment and related outcomes differ according to the characteristics of the Job Corps center attended was examined. The study sample consisted of approximately 9,400 program group members and 6,000 control group members who were randomly selected from among the nearly 81,000…

The labor market prospects of out-of-school young adults and options for improving the employment and earnings potential of all young adults were examined. The following issues were among those considered: demographic and social factors affecting young adults' employment prospects; employment trends and labor market problems in the United States…