Studies in the News is a very current compilation of items significant to the Legislature and Governor's Office. It is created weekly by the State Library's Research Bureau to supplement the public policy debate in California’s Capitol. To help share the latest information with state policymakers, these reading lists are now being made accessible through the State Library’s website. This week's list of current articles in various public policy areas is presented below.

Service to State Employees:

• When available, the URL for the full text of each item is provided.

• California State Employees may contact the State Information & Reference Center (916-654-0206; cslsirc@library.ca.gov) with the SITN issue number and the item number [S#].

• All other interested individuals should contact their local library - the items may be available there, or may be borrowed by your local library on your behalf.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE & LAW ENFORCEMENT

PRISONERS & PAROLEES

Sunshine for Ex-Cons Looking to Work. By Christy Visher, Justice Policy Center, Urban Institute. (The Institute, Washington, DC) 2006. 3 p.

Full Text at: www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=900967&renderforprint=1

["The author comments on Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s initiative to review the restrictions that disqualify ex-offenders for jobs in state agencies, calling the effort an example that other states and the federal government should follow."]

[Request #S64001]

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Employment-Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners: What Have We Learned, What are We Learning, and Where Should We Go From Here? By Dan Bloom, MDRC. (MDRC, New York, New York) July 2006. 28 p.

Full Text at: www.mdrc.org/publications/435/full.pdf

["Each year, the more than 600,000 people released from prison face numerous obstacles to successful reentry into society, starting with the challenge of finding stable work. This background paper reviews previous research on work-focused programs for ex-prisoners, describes planned and ongoing evaluations, and proposes ideas for future research."]

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The Impact of Incarceration in State Prison on the Employment Prospects of Women. By Robert J. LaLonde and Rosa Cho, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago. (The University, Chicago, Illinois) 2006. 2 p.

Full Text at: harrisschool.uchicago.edu/about/publications/research-report/rr2006/incarceration.asp

["The number of incarcerated women has risen dramatically since 1980. Incarceration is typically associated with lower earnings and economic prospects for men. However, does the same hold true for women? Using a data set of economically disadvantaged women who served time in Illinois state prisons and who had contact with the state’s social or child welfare system, the authors find that imprisonment does not appear to harm women’s employment prospects after release."]

[Request #S64003]

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ECONOMY

CALIFORNIA

California Has Maintained Its Competitive Edge. By Alissa Anderson, California Budget Project. (The Project, Sacramento, California) August 2006. 3 p.

Full Text at: www.cbp.org/2006/0608_pp_competitiveedge.pdf

[“A new report shows that California has maintained its competitive edge in key industries. California's information and manufacturing sectors, which include most high-tech and biotech industries and the motion picture industry, performed as well as or better than those of the rest of the U.S. 'These are the industries that are often cited as being critical to California's future, industries where California had historical strength.'” San Gabriel Valley Tribune (August 16, 2006) 1.]

[Request #S63908]

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Enhancing Competitiveness: A Review of Recent State Economic Development Initiatives, 2005. By Madeleine Bayard, National Governor's Association, Center for Best Practices. (The Center, Washington, DC) 2006. 52 p.

Full Text at: www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0604ENHANCECOMPIB.pdf

["States launched a variety of economic development initiatives over the last year, despite limited resources available for new programs. Most initiatives aimed to improve job growth and job quality. Governors used the economic development strategies that proved to be effective in the 1990s: building workforce skills through education and training; spurring innovation by supporting research and development (R&D) initiatives; and aiding the development of new small businesses — the major source of job growth.... Most of the states' major new economic development initiatives focused on enhancing state and regional 'clusters of innovation' — fast-growing groups of businesses that share markets, labor, new ideas, and products."]

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New Census Data Show Few Gains for California. By the California Budget Project. (The Project, Sacramento, California) August 2006. 7 p.

Full Text at: www.cbp.org/2006/060829_census_2005.pdf

["New Census data show that the economic recovery that began in 2001 has resulted in minimal gains for low- and middle income Californians. Four years into the economic recovery, 2005 household incomes remained below those of 2001 and the 2005 share of Californians in poverty remained higher than in 2001. In addition, the share of Californians without health coverage increased in 2005 and continued to be among the highest in the nation."]

[Request #S64005]

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EMPLOYMENT

CALIFORNIA

A Labor Day Briefing for California. By the Labor Market Information Division, California Employment Development Department. (The Division, Sacramento, California) September 2006. 11 p.

Full Text at: www.calmis.ca.gov/SpecialReports/Labor-Day-Briefing.pdf

["This study projects that California employers will continue to add jobs at a pace of roughly 200,000 a year with trade -- particularly retail trade -- and business and professional services accounting for about half of the demand for workers, while manufacturing declines and construction plateaus with the end of the housing boom. The fastest growing occupations, EDD says, will be computer network and data technicians, software engineers and home health care." Sacramento Bee (September 4, 2006) A3.]

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"Credentialism and the Proliferation of Fake Degrees: The Employer Pretends to Need a Degree; The Employee Pretends to Have One." By Creola Johnson, Michael E. Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University. IN: Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal, vol. 23, no. 2 (August 2006) pp. 269-342.

Full Text at: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=925243

[“Employers are partially responsible for the fake degree demand through the practice of credentialism -- overly relying on degrees as proof of job competency. Faced with a diminishing pool of well-paying jobs and fearing their employers are unfairly holding them back, some workers pretend to have earned degrees, purchasing them to obtain coveted jobs or promotions. This article posits that by relying on higher education credentials as proof of competency when filling low-to-moderate-skill positions, employers risk violating the Civil Rights Act to the extent that such credentials are not a business necessity and job-related and such reliance has a disparate impact on groups protected by the Act.”]

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Quality Services and Quality Jobs for Supporting Californians with Developmental Disabilities. By Carol Zabin, U.C. Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. (The Center, Berkeley, California) 2006. 64 p.

Full Text at: laborcenter.berkeley.edu/disabilities/disabilities_report06.pdf

["Written at the request of Senator Wesley Chesbro, this report documents the staffing crisis in developmental disabilities services in California and its effect on quality of care. Dr. Zabin forecasts that, without immediate action, there will be a dramatic exacerbation of the crisis in the years and decades to come. She proposes a professional employer organization (PEO) as a means of helping solve the staffing crisis, and outlines the possible structure and function of a viable PEO."]

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2006 Workplace Vacation: Poll Findings. By Justina Victor, Society for Human Resource Management. (The Society, Alexandria, Virginia) September 2006. 37 p.

Full Text at: www.shrm.org/hrresources/surveys_published/2006%20Workplace%20Vacation%20Poll%20Findings.pdf

["Both Human Resources professionals and employees agreed that an increasing number of employees in their organizations were opting to take long weekend vacations instead of being out of the workplace for longer periods of time. Businesses that focus on high productivity and the bottom line could be encouraging workplace addiction, stressed employees and a lack of work/life balance."]

[Request #S64009]

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Getting Punched: The Job and Family Clock: It's Time for Flexible Work for Workers of All Wages. By Jodie Levin-Epstein. (Center for Law and Social Policy, Washington, DC) 2006. 32 p.

Full Text at: www.clasp.org/publications/getting_punched_fullnotes.pdf

["Get the facts on the dramatic labor market changes that result in more and more workers facing dual and dueling responsibilities -- those at work and those at home. Businesses that recognize this tension address it through responsive scheduling and paid time off; and, these businesses benefit from cost savings when they do. The report suggests 10 ways that government should get more involved in promoting responsive workplaces for workers of all wages."]

[Request #S64010]

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Guest Worker Programs Should Include Strong Wage Protections for U.S. Workers. By Ross Eisenbrey and Monique Morrissey, Economic Policy Institute. EPI Issue Brief. No. 226. (The Institute, Washington, DC) August 10, 2006. 5 p.

Full Text at: www.epinet.org/issuebriefs/226/ib226.pdf

["The prevailing wage provision in the McCain-Kennedy bill, like similar provisions in earlier guest worker laws, is designed to prevent employers from recruiting guest workers willing to work for a wage that will adversely affect the living standards and wages of American workers. It also helps to ensure that guest workers are hired only when labor markets are tight, though it does so imperfectly since prevailing wage measures are always out of date."]

[Request #S64011]

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Growth in the Foreign-Born Workforce and Employment of the Native Born. By Rakesh Kochhar, Pew Hispanic Center. (The Center, Washington, DC) August 10, 2006. 56 p.

Full Text at: pewhispanic.org/files/reports/69.pdf

["Big increases in immigration since 1990 have not hurt employment prospects for American workers.... Other factors, such as economic growth, played a larger role than immigration in setting the job market for Americans." Sacramento Bee (August 10, 2006) 1.]

[Request #S64012]

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Attitudes Toward Work and Job Security. By S. Kathi Brown, American Association of Retired Persons. (The Association, Washington, DC) August 2006. 14 p.

Full Text at: assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/econ/work_2006.pdf

["In recent years, much media attention has been given to the increasing number of formerly U.S.- based jobs that companies have moved (or off-shored) to foreign countries, the increasing use of technology to automate jobs that were once much more labor-intensive, and the growing population of immigrant workers in the U.S. This survey of U.S. workers ages 18 and older explores their attitudes about work and job security, including their expectations regarding the age at which they will retire and the degree to which they feel secure in their current job."]

[Request #S64013]

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AFT Public Employees Compensation Survey: A Survey of Professional, Scientific and Related Occupations in State Government. By the American Federation of Teachers. (The Federation, Washington, DC) 2006. 131 p.

Full Text at: www.aft.org/salary/2006/download/PECompSurvey06.pdf

["This is the seventh straight year that AFT Public Employees have compiled data to compare the salaries of state employee professionals in specific job titles across the country.... With more and better information, those involved in setting state employee compensation can work toward programs that meet the needs of current and prospective state employees and address the challenges to quality government services."]

[Request #S64014]

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A Guide to Telework in the Federal Government. By the Office of Personnel Management. (The Office, Washington, DC) August 3, 2006. 16 p.

Full Text at: www.opm.gov/pandemic/agency2a-guide.pdf#search=%22Guide%20to%20Telework%20in%20the%20Federal%20Government%22

["This guide suggests that one of the keys to success and continuity of operations during any emergency, especially a pandemic health crisis, is an effective teleworking program that is just a matter of routine to employees. The report states that when agencies permit as many employees as possible to telework as often as possible, they are on the right track. "]

[Request #S64015]

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Work and Retirement: Facts and Figures. By the Urban Institute. (The Institute, Washington, DC) August 2006. 4 p.

Full Text at: www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/900985_work_and_retirement.pdf

["The impending retirement of the baby boomers and the relatively small size of later generations may lead to skills shortages, create upward pressure on wages and inflation, and limit economic growth. Lower output would reduce government tax revenue at the same time that the surge in retirees will increase spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This fact sheet describes the benefits of delayed retirement, the capacity of older people to remain at work, trends and patterns in labor force participation at older ages, and some of the legal and institutional work impediments that exist for older Americans."]

[Request #S64016]

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Career Pathways: Aligning Public Resources to Support Individual and Regional Economic Advancement in the Knowledge Economy. By Davis Jenkins, Workforce Strategy Center. (The Center, Brooklyn, New York) August 2006. 28 p.

Full Text at: www.workforcestrategy.org/publications/WSC_pathways8.17.06.pdf

["Many states and localities are struggling to produce a 'robust knowledge workforce' because of declining public resources and an education pipeline that often 'functions more like a sieve than a pipeline,' leaving out many citizens from lower income levels. The 'career pathways' approach is designed to get a wide range of relevant parties in an area -- educators from primary through postsecondary schools, employers, state work force officials and others -- working together to train both young people and adults for high-demand jobs in emerging fields important to the local economy." ECS-eClips (September 1, 2006) 1.]

[Request #S64017]

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HCM Maturity Model. By Vicki Morris. (American Society for Training and Development, Alexandria, Virginia) 2006. 6 p.

Full Text at: www.learningcircuits.org/2006/May/morris.htm

["For Human Resources professionals, human capital management (HCM) is not a tactic, it is a strategy that enables organizations to cultivate talent to meet the evolving skill requirements of a given business. The underlying concept behind HCM presupposes a staged, evolutionary approach to building skills maturity within a workforce. To reap the rewards of an effective HCM strategy -- improved employee satisfaction, increased productivity and competitive differentiation of a business itself -- organizations need a linear model of maturity to deliver a successful HCM initiative."]

[Request #S64018]

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The Impact of Undercounting in the Current Population Survey. By John Schmitt and Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research. (The Center, Washington, DC) August 2006. 14 p.

Full Text at: www.cepr.net/publications/cps_declining_coverage_2006_08.pdf

["An analysis of the nation's most important labor-market survey concludes that official estimates of the number of Americans living in poverty and without health insurance may significantly underestimate the true number of poor and uninsured. The share of Americans covered by the survey has been declining over time. The group that is falling out of the survey is economically marginalized, less likely to have a job, less likely to have health-insurance, and more likely to be poor.'"]

[Request #S64019]

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The State of the American Worker, 2006: Attitudes About Work in America. By Karlyn H. Bowman, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. (The Institute, Washington, DC) August 29, 2006. 33 p.

Full Text at: www.aei.org/publications/pubID.14886/pub_detail.asp

["Strong majorities say they are satisfied with their jobs.... The aspect of work that provides the greatest satisfaction is co-workers and colleagues. Workers are least satisfied with their pay.... American workers seem satisfied with their job security.... Americans do not appear overly concerned about outsourcing, either. In an August 2005 Gallup poll, 88 percent of employed adults said they were not worried about their companies moving their job overseas." AEI Press Release (August 30, 2006) 1.]

[Request #S64020]

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Where Have All the Wages Gone? Jobs and Wages in 2006. By Arindrajit Dube and Dave Graham-Squire, U.C. Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. Policy Brief. (The Center, Berkeley, California) August 29, 2006. 24 p.

Full Text at: laborcenter.berkeley.edu/jobquality/wagesgone06.pdf

["Job growth was moderate in the United States as a whole and in California, but the employment growth has not returned to pre-recessionary levels. Productivity and corporate profits have posted strong gains throughout the recovery. Average wages in the U.S. failed to keep up with inflation, reinforcing a trend of wage stagnation and decline. And, in California, real wages grew until 2003, but have been stagnant since then."]

[Request #S64023]

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Welfare Recipiency, Job Separation Outcomes, and Postseparation Earnings: Insight from Linked Personnel and State Administrative Data. By Jill Marie Gunderson and Julie L. Hotchkiss, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Working Paper 2006-7. (The Bank, Atlanta, Georgia) 2006. 36 p.

Full Text at: www.frbatlanta.org/filelegacydocs/wp0607.pdf

["This paper uses a unique personnel data set and state administrative data to follow welfare and nonwelfare hires who separate from similar jobs with the same firm. Welfare hires are more likely to separate from their job and are more likely to be on welfare after separation compared with similarly low-skilled nonwelfare hires. Those not returning to welfare, however, are no more or less likely to have moved on to a lower -- or higher-paying job than nonwelfare hires."]

[Request #S64024]

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Public Says American Work Life is Worsening, But Most Workers Remain Satisfied With Their Jobs. By Pew Research Center. (The Center, Washington DC) August 31, 2006. 40 p.

Full Text at: pewresearch.org/assets/social/pdf/Jobs.pdf

["Americans believe that workers in this country are worse off now than a generation ago -- toiling longer and harder for less in wages and benefits, for employers who aren’t as loyal as they once were, in jobs that aren’t as secure, and in a global economy that might very well send their work overseas. Yet the public has generally taken in stride this perceived fraying of the social safety net at work. Most people still have positive feelings about their own jobs, and even though many are troubled by the way the forces of modernization and globalization are affecting the American workplace, the level of public concern today is not substantially greater than it had been a decade or two ago."]

[Request #S64025]

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Employee Tenure 2006. By the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (The Bureau, Washington, DC) September 8, 2006. 10 p.

Full Text at: www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf

[“The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.0 years in January 2006, unchanged from January 2004."]

[Request #S64026]

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Civilian Workforce Planning in the Department of Defense: Different Levels, Different Roles. By Susan M. Gates and others, RAND. Prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. (RAND National Defense Research Institute, Santa Monica, California) 2006.

["In response to more than a decade of downsizing and restructuring, the Department of Defense is engaged in a human-resources strategic planning effort to address resulting imbalances in both skills and experience levels in many parts of DoD.... To support Department-wide efforts, the DoD asked the RAND Corporation to explore how workforce planning and requirements determination are accomplished at specific installations, to identify potential roles for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the planning process, and to identify potential data sources for Department-wide workforce planning."]

Full Document. 152 p.:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG449.pdf

Summary. 15 p.:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG449.sum.pdf

[Request #S64027]

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America's Dynamic Workforce: 2006. By the U.S. Department of Labor. (The Department, Washington, DC) August 2006.

["This study presents an overview of current conditions and notable trends affecting the American labor market and economic activity. Primary emphasis is on measures of labor market performance,­ employment, labor force participation, unemployment, and compensation. General measures of economic performance such as gross domestic product and productivity growth are also described as they relate to labor market conditions and trends."]

Report. 48 p.
http://www.dol.gov/asp/media/reports/workforce2006/ADW2006_Full_Text.pdf

Chart Book. 72 p.
http://www.dol.gov/asp/media/reports/workforce2006/ADW2006_Chart_Book.pdf

[Request #S64028]

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State of California Workforce Planning Model. By the California Department of Personnel Administration. (The Department, Sacramento, California) 2006. 24 p.

Full Text at: www.dpa.ca.gov/general/publications/manuals/WF_planning/files/WorkforcePlanningModel.pdf

["The Model contains the following seven steps: 1) review strategic plan; 2) identify work functions; 3) identify staffing requirements; 4) project workforce supply; 5) analyze workforce gaps; 6) develop priorities and solutions; and 7) evaluate the plan. The Model assists you in conducting an analysis of present workforce staffing and competencies; identifying staffing and competencies needed in the future, based on the goals of your department's strategic plan; comparing the present workforce to future needs to identify gaps and surpluses; developing plans for building the workforce needed in the future; and evaluating the process to ensure that the workforce competency model remains valid and that objectives are being met."]

[Request #S64029]

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The Employment Retention and Advancement Project: Results from the Texas ERA Site. By Karin Martinson and Richard Hendra. (MDRC, New York, New York) 2006.

["Although much is known about how to help welfare recipients find jobs, little is known about how to help them and other low-wage workers keep jobs or advance in the labor market. This report assesses a program in Texas that aimed to promote job placement, employment retention, and advancement among applicants and recipients in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.... The results reinforce the view that promoting employment retention and advancement among welfare recipients presents challenging implementation issues."]

Executive Summary. 13 p.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/436/execsum.pdf

Full Report. 193 p.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/436/full.pdf

[Request #S64030]

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Strength in Partnership: Building a New Approach to Workforce Development in New York City. By the Workforce Strategy Center. (The Center, Brooklyn, New York) 2006. 21 p.

Full Text at: www.workforcestrategy.org/publications/WSCstrength_6.23.06.pdf

["If one mantra dominates the field of workforce development, it is partnership and collaboration: the need to link disparate training providers and colleges, to better connect employers with training courses and to unite public and private sector funding. The need for partnership is clear, but all the rhetoric and legislative mandates supporting this goal have not added up to much....There are few exceptions to this rule, but one has arisen in an unlikely locale —- New York City. What follows is discussion of this unique collaboration and a description of key lessons that inform how other regions can replicate this successful model."]

[Request #S64031]

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"Human Capital Growth in a Cross Section of U.S. Metropolitan Areas." By Christopher H. Wheeler. IN: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, vol. 88, no. 2 (March/April 2006) pp. 113-132.

Full Text at: research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/06/03/Wheeler.pdf

["Growth of human capital, defined as the change in the fraction of a metropolitan area’s labor force with a bachelor’s degree, is typically viewed as generating a number of desirable outcomes, including economic growth. The results reveal two consistently significant correlates of human capital growth: population and the existing stock of college-educated labor. Given that population growth and human capital growth are both positively associated with education,... larger, more-educated metropolitan areas should have exhibited the fastest rates of increase in both population and education and thus 'pulled away' from smaller, less-educated metropolitan areas. The evidence largely supports this conclusion."]

[Request #S64033]

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California's Edge: Keeping California Competitive, Creating Opportunity. By California's EDGE Campaign. (The Workforce Alliance, Washington, DC) Summer 2006. 12 p.

Full Text at: www.workforcealliance.org/atf/cf/{93353952-1DF1-473A-B105-7713F4529EBB}/CaliforniaEdgeCampaign_White_Paper.pdf

["Over the next two decades, the highly skilled baby boom generation will be retiring, and many projections indicate that California’s replacement workers will have lower levels of educational attainment if current trends persist. To build a broadly shared, talent-based prosperity, California must: 1) invest in regional workforce and economic development strategies; 2) provide all Californians access to high quality postsecondary education and skills training; 3) provide working adults with opportunities to move up the skill ladder; 4) link workforce programs and institutions to create pathways to high wage jobs; and 5) align program goals and measures to achieve a shared vision of California’s future and to ensure accountability."]

[Request #S64034]

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Cultural Competence in Workforce Development: The Jobs Initiative Experience. By Laura Duenes and Talmira Hill, Abt Associates. (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland) 2006. 39 p.

Full Text at: www.aecf.org/lists/fes/aug06/ji_cultural_competence_june2006.pdf

["This study illustrates how issues of race, ethnicity and culture arise along every point on the continuum of workforce development. A sequel to a 2001 report, Taking the Initiative on Jobs and Race (2001), this paper documents what the Jobs Initiative (JI) has learned about these timely issues. It reviews how the JI approached cultural competence, highlights some of the tools and strategies developed during implementation and identifies what worked and what challenges arose along the way."]

[Request #S64035]

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Training Policy in Brief: An Overview of Federal Workforce Development Policies. By Gwen Rubinstein and Andrea Mayo, The Workforce Alliance. (The Alliance, Washington, DC) 2006. 114 p.

Full Text at: www.workforcealliance.org/atf/cf/{93353952-1DF1-473A-B105-7713F4529EBB}/%20FINAL_Briefing.pdf

["This publication is a briefing book on key federal policies and programs funding workforce development... and proves a useful reference to the policy makers and their staffs who work with the multiple federal programs that contribute to providing skills training and education to adults. Workforce development does not occur in any one place, nor is it housed in any one government agency. Workforce development services can include skill-specific training, higher education, postsecondary vocational education, literacy training, and more -- not to mention combinations of all or some of these."]

[Request #S64036]

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"Succession Planning." By Trudy Walsh. IN: Government Leader: Managing for Results, vol. 1, no. 7. (May/June 2006) pp. 1-7.

Full Text at: www.governmentleader.com/issues/1_7/features/151-1.html

["With their characteristic flair, the boomers have transformed every aspect of life: school, work, family. The odds are good that they won’t go gentle into the good night of retirement either. The question of who will replace them—and their knowledge, both tacit and technical—is a burning one for federal human-capital executives."]

[Request #S64037]

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High School Reform and Work: Facing Labor Market Realities. By Paul E. Barton, Educational Testing Service. (The Service, Princeton, New Jersey) 2006. 34 p.

Full Text at: www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICHSWORK.pdf

["This report attempts to bring together available information on the work world, what employers say they want, what employment projections show, and the requirements and qualifications necessary to meet employer needs and standards.... This analysis does not find support for the proposition that those not going to college need to be qualified to enter college credit courses in order to enter the workforce. It does, however, find a strong case for advancing the academic skills of a high proportion of those high school graduates if they are to compete successfully for the higher-paying jobs available to those without a college degree, and advance in such jobs."]

[Request #S64038]

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Good Stories Aren't Enough: Becoming Outcomes-Driven in Workforce Development. By Martha A. Miles. (Public/Private Ventures, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) July 2006. 54 p.

Full Text at: www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/203_publication.pdf

["Workforce development organizations are more and more focused on achieving and documenting performance outcomes; yet managers frequently face a challenge getting buy-in from front-line staff about collecting and using data -- not only to satisfy funder's needs but to improve services. This paper identifies practical, hands-on strategies to increase staff involvement and communication around data, so that what at first seems like 'impersonal' information becomes a useful tool to better meet job seekers' and employers' needs."]

[Request #S64039]

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Skills to Live By: Participant Reflections on the Value of Their Sectoral Training Experience. By Maureen Conway and Amy Blair, Workforce Strategies Initiative. (The Aspen Institute, Washington DC) 2006. 40 p.

Full Text at: www.aspenwsi.org/publications/06-010.pdf

["Reports on the outcomes of training programs generally focus on placement wages, hours worked, changes in annual earnings and other data indicating whether the training program led to a change in the participant's economic situation. Rarely heard are the voices of individuals themselves, describing what these changes mean to them and their families, how they view their outcomes themselves, and what they see as continuing barriers to their participation and success in the workforce."]

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Employment and Unemployment Among Youth: Summer 2006. By Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (The Bureau, Washington, DC) August 25, 2006. 8 p.

Full Text at: www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/youth.pdf

["From April to July, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old increased by 2.5 million to 21.9 million. July is the traditional summertime peak for youth employment. This summer’s increase in youth employment was slightly lower than last year’s 2.7 million increase. Unemployment among youth increased by 658,000 between April and July, a much larger rise than in the prior year but about the same as in 2003 and 2004."]

[Request #S64041]

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HUMAN SERVICES

TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES

The Wait is Over, the Work Begins: Implementing the New TANF Legislation. By Susan Golonka, National Governor's Association, Center for Best Practices. Issue Brief. (The Center, Washington, DC) June 16, 2006. 17 p.

Full Text at: www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0606TANFLEGISLATION.PDF

["Satisfying work participation rate requirements and avoiding penalties are important tasks, but they are not the central objectives of states’ welfare programs. Key roles for governors and staff as they implement the changes mandated by welfare reauthorization include: 1) setting direction by reviewing state investments, goals, and priorities; 2) taking stock of programs to identify strengths and areas for improvement; 3) implementing program design options that maximize work participation and help families achieve economic self-sufficiency; and 4) monitoring progress towards goals."]

[Request #S64042]

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[This section links to items in Studies in the News since the last Employment, Training, Vocational Education and Welfare to Work Supplement.]

EMPLOYMENT

"Employment, Education, and Human Services." IN: Studies in the News, Issue 06-05 (January 2006) - 06-25 (June 2006).

[Includes: "Welfare reform bonuses for states;" "Undocumented workers entitled to workers' compensation;" "Few replacements for retiring public managers;" "Treatment denials for injured workers;" "Perils faced by forest workers;" "Minimum wage economics;" "Decline of United Farmworkers Union;" "Day-labor industry workplace violations;" "Court upholds race-bias suit against San Francisco;" "Trade adjustment assistance needed;" "Minimum wage facts;" "Bridge worker safety;" "Improper activities by state employees;" "Reducing the illegal alien population;" "Financial preparedness for retirement;" "Increased skills for low-wage workers;" and others.]

[Request #S64044]

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