NCJ Number
94846
Date Published
1984
Length
26 pages
Annotation
An impact study of the Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects -- the country's largest demonstration to test the feasibility and effectiveness of a new approach to solving the employment problems of disadvantaged youths -- compared the behavior of a sample of youths in four large program sites (together accounting for over 50 percent of active participants) and another similar sample in four matched locations without programs.
Abstract
The study focused on a stratified random sample of all youths in the program. The youths were interviewed at program startup between March and August 1978 and in 1971, 1980, and 1981. Issues discussed in this summary report include the successful delivery of the job guarantee; the important but limited role of the private sector; the unusually high participation rates, confirming that disadvantaged, minority youths have a strong interest in work; exceptionally large increases in employment and earnings during the operational period, which continued at substantial levels during the postoperational period; and the absence of any significant impact on school enrollment, graduation, or dropout rates. Of major significance was the demonstrated feasibility of the then existing administrative structure (the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act prime sponsors) to deliver a job guarantee on a large scale and for a substantial segment of the unemployed population. Study findings suggest that targeting extremely disadvantaged youths is both feasible and warrented. Implementing a nationwide, targeted job guarantee would cost between $1.6 and $1.8 billion a year in 1980 dollars.