Key Performance Measure Considerations in Implementation & Policy Design: Assessing the Workforce Investment Act Program

Abstract

Unemployment can pose very serious public safety, public health, and mental health challenges to most, if not all, local jurisdictions throughout the United States. These problems clearly become heightened when a major recession or economic downturn plagues the country. The challenges associated with unemployment have been deemed so complex that the United Sates Department of Labor (DOL), through its Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program, has prescribed a highly integrated service delivery system which is designed to mitigate the challenges encountered by those individuals who become unemployed through no fault of their own. With their so-called One-Stop Centers, the DOL has theoretically positioned the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to work together in order to more effectively serve the unemployed. In this sense, the DOL’s One-Stop Center service delivery model specifically features the colocation of various workforce development and social services organizations at a single service site. The primary question addressed by this paper’s research concerns the extent to which the WIA program, through its One-Stop Service delivery system, has had an impact upon the plight of those who are unemployed. Accordingly, the study’s research questions are as follows: How does the WIA employment counseling intervention impact the successful implementation of the WIA program within the state of New Hampshire?