Labor Market & Industry Studies

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development 2023 Update

May 21, 2024 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development 2023 Update
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, David McCoy, Heath Prince (Principal Investigator), and Thomas Boswell
Date: November 2023
Publication Type: Report, 173pp.

INTRODUCTION
In FY 2016–FY 2022, Travis County invested over $16 million to support a continuum of adult education, training, and employment services. The adult education programing supported by the County includes English as a second language, basic adult education, high school equivalency and GED classes. Sectoral occupational training includes healthcare professions, information technology, skilled trades, manufacturing, and other occupations in area growth industries with good prospects for career advancement, improved economic stability, and access to employee benefits.

Four of the Travis County workforce development grantees receive county-funded assistance as a consortium, the Workforce Education and Readiness Continuum–Travis County (WERC-TC). WERC-TC providers are Workforce Solutions Capital Area Career Centers, Goodwill of Central Texas, Austin Area Urban League, and American YouthWorks. Four additional community-based organizations maintaining workforce development contracts with Travis County are included in this report: Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, Capital IDEA, LifeWorks, and Skillpoint Alliance. In addition, WERC-TC grantee American YouthWorks also delivers services to participants through Travis County funding that is not WERC-TC.

To understand program participant outcomes and the impact of these services, the county has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC), an organized research unit in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its investments. This evaluation report presents findings and analyses of programs funded during a seven-year on-going evaluation (FY 2016–FY 2022).

PREP: Baseline results from a household panel survey of the socioeconomic conditions experienced by agricultural workers in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua

July 29, 2023 Leave a Comment

Prevention, Resilience, Efficiency, and Protection for workers in industrial agriculture in a changing climate (PREP): Baseline results from a household panel survey of the socioeconomic conditions experienced by agricultural workers in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua
Authors: Heath J. Prince, PhD, Thomas Boswell, MGPS, Jason Glaser, MSc, Catharina Wesseling, MD, PhD, Ashweeta Patnaik, MPH, William José Martinez-Cuadra, BS
Date: July 2023
Publication Type: Working Paper, 18pp.
Key terms: chronic kidney disease; heat stress; survey data analysis; rest-shade-water; occupational health; earnings; marital status

Abstract
Objective
Our purpose with this study is to examine the socioeconomic outcomes associated with chronic kidney disease not related to well-known risk factors (CKDnt) in four communities in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua that are home to a substantial number of sugarcane workers.

Methods
We employed a cluster-based systematic sampling design to identify differences in outcomes between those households affected directly by CKDnt and those that are not.

Results
Overall, we find that approximately a third of households surveyed had a household member diagnosed with CKDnt. Eighty percent of CKDnt households reported that the head of the household had been without work for the last 6 months or more, compared to 61 percent of non-CKDnt households. Non-CKDnt households took in more than double the earnings income than CKDnt households (C$ 51,845 and C$ 24,295, respectively). Nonetheless, on average, CKDnt households’ total income exceeded that of non-CKDnt households due to Nicaragua’s national INSS Social Security payments to CKDnt households, suggestive of a substantial economic burden on the state resulting from the disease. Households headed by widows or widowers who are widowed as a result of CKDnt demonstrate distinct deficits in total income when compared to either non-widowed households or to households widowed by causes other than CKDnt.

Conclusions
Despite strong similarities in terms of demographic characteristics, and despite residing in the same communities with similar access to the available resources, households experiencing CKDnt exhibit distinct and statistically significant differences in important socioeconomic outcomes when compared to non-CKDnt households.

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2022 Update

April 25, 2023 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2022 Update
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, Heath Prince (Principal Investigator), David McCoy, and Thomas Boswell
Date: March 2023
Publication Type: Report, 181pp.

Introduction:
In FY 2016–FY 2021, Travis County invested over $14 million through contracts with workforce development programs for low-income residents who face challenges in finding steady employment with sufficient earnings to support themselves and their families. These programs provide services ranging from Adult Basic Education (ABE), English as a Second Language (ESL) and high school equivalency certification (HSEC) programs, to short- and long-term skills training leading to certifications and/or associate degrees across a wide range of occupations. These occupations include nursing and other healthcare professions, information technology, skilled trades, manufacturing, and other occupations in area growth industries with good prospects for career advancement.

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2021 Update

April 6, 2022 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2021 Update
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, and Heath Prince
Date: February 2022
Publication Type: Report, 170pp.

This evaluation examines outcomes and impacts for participants exiting the Travis County-funded community-based workforce programs between FY 2016 and FY 2020. To understand the impact of these services, the county has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC), an organized research unit in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its investments. This evaluation report presents findings and analyses of programs funded during a five-year on-going evaluation (FY 2016–FY 2020).

RMC’s Dr. Heath Prince co-authors article on interventions to prevent occupational heat stress in laborers

April 6, 2022 Leave a Comment

RMC’s Director and Research Scientist Dr. Heath Prince co-authored an article outlining interventions to prevent occupational heat stress in laborers during physically demanding work in high environmental temperatures. The article titled “Workplace Intervention for Heat Stress: Essential Elements of Design, Implementation, and Assessment” was published on March 22, 2022, in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJEPH) by MDPI Open Access Journals and can be found here.

Abstract:
Heat stress is associated with numerous health effects that potentially harm workers, especially in a warming world. This investigation occurred in a setting where laborers are confronted with occupational heat stress from physically demanding work in high environmental temperatures. Collaboration with a major Nicaraguan sugarcane producer offered the opportunity to study interventions to prevent occupational heat-stress-related kidney disease. Two aims for this study of a rest-shade-water intervention program were: (1) describe the evolving intervention, summarize findings that motivated proposed improvements, assess impact of those improvements, and identify challenges to successful implementation and (2) extract primary lessons learned about intervention research that have both general relevance to investigations of work-related disease prevention and specific relevance to this setting. The learning curve for the various stakeholders as well as the barriers to success demonstrate that effectiveness of an intervention cannot be adequately assessed without considerations of implementation. Designing, effectively implementing, and assessing both health impacts and implementation quality is a resource-intensive endeavor requiring a transdisciplinary approach. Both general and specific lessons learned are presented for decisions on study design and study elements, implementation assessment, and management engagement in understanding how productivity and health can be successfully balanced and for building effective communication between investigators and all levels of management.

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2017 Update

February 21, 2022 Leave a Comment

Evaluation of Travis County Investments in Workforce Development: 2017 Update
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Patty Rodriguez, Heath Prince, and Greg Cumpton
Date: December 2017
Publication Type: Report, 72 pp.

This evaluation examines outcomes and impacts for participants in the Travis County-funded community-based workforce programs exiting services in FY 2016. To understand the impact of these services, the County has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC) at the University of Texas at Austin to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of its investments. This Workforce Development (WFD) evaluation process will prepare the first year analysis of outcomes and estimated net impacts of these investments in the programs funded in FY 2016, the first of a five year on-going evaluation (FY 2016- FY 2020).

The first section presents an overview of the evaluation questions and research methods, followed by separate sections for each of the providers examined. Each provider section includes a brief profile of the provider and its workforce development program(s), and details outcomes and impacts for participants who exited the program during FY 2016. Findings examine UI wage data for the quarter the client exited services, four quarters prior to entering the program, and four quarters post exit. Findings examine results in the post-service period through June 30, 2017, the latest quarter for which UI wage data is available. Additionally, each section reports annual funding levels. The final section summarizes evaluation findings from FY 2016.

Policy Brief: Building a National Unemployment Insurance System

March 1, 2021 Leave a Comment

Building a National Unemployment Insurance System
Authors: Stephen A. Wandner and Christopher King
Date: February 12, 2021 (revised March 16, 2021)
Publication Type: Policy Brief, 25 pp.

Dr. Chris King, Senior Research Scientist and former RMC Director, along with Stephen A. Wandner, a Senior Fellow with the National Academy of Social Insurance, has co-authored a timely and critically important policy brief on modernizing the U.S. Unemployment Insurance program. The pandemic has made stark the long-running weaknesses in the UI program, but King and Wandner present solutions that are both practical and imminently practicable. This brief is the product of the Better Employment and Training Strategies (BETS) task force, an ad-hoc group, including the RMC, of more than 40 workforce development experts created to provide critically needed input into policy and programmatic conversations around improving the country’s employment and training system. You can read more from the authors and BETS here.

Individual Endorsements
Steve Crawford (GW Institute of Public Policy, The George Washington University)
Stuart Andreason (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity)
Larry Good (Corporation for a Skilled Workforce)
Earl Buford (Partner4Work)
Amanda Cage (National Fund for Workforce Solutions)
Maureen Conway (Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program)
Bob Jones (former Assistant Secretary, Employment and Training Administration/U.S. Department of Labor)
Clair Minson (Sandra Grace Consulting)
Todd Greene (WorkRise, Urban Institute)
Annelies Goger (Brookings Institution)
James Haynes (OIC of America)
Andy Van Kleunen (National Skills Coalition)
Jeanine LaPrad (Corporation for a Skilled Workforce)
Mary Alice McCarthy (New America)
Sarah Miller (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta)
Jane Oates (former Assistant Secretary, Employment and Training Administration/U.S. Department of Labor)
Brent Parton (New America)
Heath Prince (Ray Marshall Center, University of Texas at Austin)
Martha Ross (Brookings Institution)
Thomas Showalter (National Youth Employment Coalition)
Martin Simon (formerly National Governors Association)
Katie Spiker (National Skills Coalition)
Carl Van Horn (Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University)

Organizational Endorsements
National Skills Coalition
Ray Marshall Center, University of Texas at Austin

Dr. King pens op-ed with BETS focusing on labor market challenges and recovery strategies

February 22, 2021 Leave a Comment

RMC Senior Research Scientist Dr. Chris King co-authored an op-ed ‘Building Back Better’ Means Focusing on the Labor Force & Systems That Support Recovery with The Better Employment and Training Strategies Task force (BETS) published on January 22, 2021 by RealClear Policy.

BETS, a group of more than 40 workforce experts including Dr. King and the Ray Marshall Center, was formed in November 2020 by Prof. Stephen Crawford of the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, Stuart Andreason of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and Larry Good of Corporation for a Skilled Workforce to develop recommendations aimed at informing the incoming Biden-Harris administration and the 117th Congress on issues and policy options related to five central workgroups: unemployment insurance, workforce development, job quality, youth employment, and federal jobs initiatives. These five workgroups will provide critically needed input into workforce development policy and programmatic conversations around improving the country’s employment and training system.

A second report, Building Back Better: A National Jobs Strategy, Policy Proposals and a Framework for Action, was also recently published by members of BETS’s federal jobs strategy workgroup.