Implementation Of The 1992 Job Training Partnership Act Jtpa Amendments

A comprehensive critique showing that training has been a near-total failure. Examines the economic assumptions and track record of training policy, and provides a political analysis of why job training has remained so popular despite widespread evidence of its failure. [book jacket].

This document records the oral and written testimony of witnesses at a Congressional hearing held in April 1993 to assess the costs and outcomes of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Witnesses included officials from the U.S. Department of Labor, the General Accounting Office, consultants retained to evaluate the program, and several local Private Industry Councils (PICs). Testimony noted that approximately 36 million people face some type of employment barrier and are eligible to participate in JTPA programs, but fewer than 2.5 percent are actually being served, and only two-thirds of the participants are successfully completing their training and finding employment. According to a Labor Department official, JTPA programs have done a good job in training for occupational skills and job search methods, but have not provided very much help in improving reading and mathematics skills in persons with deficiencies in these areas and have done little in the areas of persons with disabilities. Only about half the program participants found jobs after completing their programs; of these, only half found them through program assistance. More than half the jobs paid less than $5 per hour. Many of the JTPA programs operate in isolation and they fail to serve the most economically disadvantaged persons. However, PIC officials also offered examples of programs that have been very successful. (KC)

Few government programs in the United States are as controversial as those designed to help the poor. From tax credits to medical assistance, the size and structure of the American safety net is an issue of constant debate. These two volumes update the earlier Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States with a discussion of the many changes in means-tested government programs and the results of new research over the past decade. While some programs that experienced falling outlays in the years prior to the previous volume have remained at low levels of expenditure, many others have grown, including Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and subsidized housing programs. For each program, the contributors describe its origins and goals, summarize its history and current rules, and discuss recipients’ characteristics and the types of benefits they receive. This is an invaluable reference for researchers and policy makers that features detailed analyses of many of the most important transfer programs in the United States.