The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in partnership with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), has funded a study about how the Wagner-Peyser Act’s Employment Service (ES) is implemented and the effectiveness of staffing approaches that states and localities use in operating their ES programs. This mixed-methods evaluation of ES operations includes both implementation and impact studies, with the goal of understanding (1) how states and localities use merit staff and deploy varied staffing models, and (2) the extent to which use of state merit staff (or use of specific staffing models) leads to better labor market outcomes for participants.
MEF Associates and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) are subcontractors to Mathematica Policy Research on this project. Contributing to overall project leadership, MEF is leading the development of design options for the impact study. MEF is also contributing to systematic reviews of research; site visits; data collection, analysis and interpretation; and implementation and impact study reports.