Worker Profiling And Reemployment Services

Based on a survey of 49 state coordinators responsible for Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services conducted in the summer of 1997, discusses the operation and effectiveness of these nationwide.

Based on a survey of state administrators in the United States who have implemented the Workers Profiling and Reemployment Service System (WPRS) and of claimant-level data from the prototype system, evaluates the impact of the system on identifying unemployment insurance (UI) claimants who are likely to exhaust their UI benefits and will need re-employment services to make the transition to new employment.

Changes to the U.S. economy have led to longer-term unemployment. Many unemployed workers receive Unemployment Insurance (UI), which provided about $30 billion in benefits in 2006. In 1993, Congress established requirements-now known as the Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) initiative-for state UI agencies to identify claimants who are most likely to exhaust their benefits, and then refer such claimants to reemployment services. To assess the implementation and effect of the initiative, GAO examined (1) how states identify claimants who are most likely to exhaust benefits, (2) to what extent states provide reemployment services as recommended by the Department of Labor (Labor), and (3) what is known about the effectiveness of the initiative in accelerating reemployment. To answer these questions, we used a combination of national data; review of seven states, including visits to local service providers in four states; and existing studies and interviews with Labor and subject matter experts.