Department of Labor's Efforts To Improve the Quality of the 1979 Summer Youth Employment Program

A review was made of actions by the Department of Labor (DOL) to improve the management of the 1979 Summer Youth Employment Program in light of an earlier review of the 1978 Program. The inquiry centered on (1) guidance provided by DOL headquarters and regional offices, including its nature, timeliness, and usefulness to local program sponsors; (2) DOL monitoring of regional offices, with emphasis on monitoring activities dealing with problem areas in the earlier report; and (3) worksites eliminated from the Program because of performance in the 1978 Summer Program and worksites closed during the 1979 Program. Of primary concern were DOL efforts to strengthen the supervision and monitoring efforts and to eliminate inadequate worksites.

For the 1979 Program, DOL provided local program sponsors with guidance on how to assess the quality of worksite experiences (including models of work settings to provide the opportunity to develop good work habits) and identified some activities that did not represent work situations. Also, DOL took actions to improve Federal monitoring of the Program. Regional office monitoring was intensified, and procedures were established for documenting the effort. Additional monitoring was conducted by the Labor Inspector General and an Office of Youth Programs Special Monitoring Group. The reported results of the DOL monitoring effort indicated that most of the worksites visited were satisfactory. Consequently, few worksites were closed during the 1979 Program. However, where problems were identified, DOL monitors generally did not take all steps necessary to assure that sponsors took corrective action before completion of the 1979 Program.