CETA Demonstration Provides Lessons on Implementing Youth Programs

The Department of Labor's Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects is a demonstration designed to test whether a guaranteed jobs program would induce economically disadvantaged youths to remain in or return to school and provide jobs to reduce the high unemployment rate among these youths. While retaining overall responsibility for the program, Labor contracted with a private corporation for the research design, management, and evaluation of the demonstration.

GAO found that most worksites provided adequate work experiences, but others had problems in job quality, supervision, job development, counseling, and worksite operation. Many sponsors experienced serious operational problems implementing or complying with program requirements. Labor and the managing corporation frequently intervened in sponsor operations, raising questions of whether the demonstration was a fair test of the guaranteed job concept and whether sponsors are capable of implementing such complex programs. Some sponsors had difficulty developing and sustaining sufficient jobs in the right locations, placed low priority on counseling, and did little worksite monitoring during the first year of the demonstration. Some problems were not identified and others, although identified, were not corrected. Some legislative and program requirements were largely ignored; others were too difficult to accomplish. Staff turnover was high. Many private sector jobs were with employers that normally hire young workers, minimizing the job creation impact of the program.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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