Ten Key Findings From Responsible Fatherhood Initiatives

Fatherhood is crucial to child development and presents challenges to poor unmarried men. Yet services addressing these problems are not highly developed or widespread, and program results so far have been mixed. This paper analyzes five programs that support low-income noncustodial fathers and presents takeaway lessons

Informal and Nonstandard Employment in the United States: Implications for Low-Income Working Families

Outlines trends in economic activity outside tax and regulatory policies, current focus on formal employment, and policy options for improving the economic well-being of low-income workers such as expanding access to skills training and childcare support

Estimating Public and Private Expenditures on Occupational Training in the United States

[Excerpt] Retraining and upgrading the skills of incumbent workers and providing training to new labor force entrants, dislocated workers, and unemployed persons can help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the workforce. Funding for occupational training comes from many sources — the federal government, state and local governments, private employers, philanthropic foundations, and individual workers themselves. This report examines occupational training to present a preliminary picture of the total spending on job training in the United States

Aging Low-Income Women Raising Minor Children: Employment, Family Structure, and Receipt of Food Stamps and Other Public Assistance

This report describes the individual and household characteristics of low-income middle-aged and older women with childrearing responsibilities and documents the extent to which they receive food stamps and other public assistance benefits. The analysis is based on 1,756 low-income women in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio who were primary caretakers of minor children when first surveyed in 1999, and who were subsequently interviewed again in 2001 and 2005. We find that older and younger low-income women in this sample were similar in most respects but that women in the older age group were more likely than the younger women to be grandmothers caring for grandchildren and reported more health and disability issues. The analysis also indicates that food stamps were the most common public benefit received but was received more by women in the younger cohort, suggesting that greater outreach may be worth considering for older caregiver women

Índice de Progresso Social 2014 - sumário executivo

A aferição de múltiplas dimensões do progresso social é indispensável para entender seus componentes, avaliar os indicadores de sucesso e catalisar aperfeiçoamentos. O Índice de Progresso Social fornece uma medida holística, objetiva, transparente e baseada em resultados do bem-estar de um país sem depender dos indicadores econômicos. O Índice de Progresso Social pode ser utilizado para comparar diferentes facetas do progresso social dos países, permitindo a identificação de áreas específicas de pontos fortes ou fracos em cada país. Também permite aos países avaliar seus indicadores de desempenho em comparação aos outros países, tanto no nível de indicadores individuais, como de medidas mais agregadas de progresso social. Este relatório descreve a metodologia utilizada para calcular o Índice de Progresso Social. A Seção 2 descreve a arquitetura conceitual do Índice e a distinção entre índices de contribuições e de resultados. Apresentamos a lógica por trás dos componentes básicos do Índice. A Seção 3 descreve os dados utilizados para a construção do Índice. A Seção 4 fornece detalhes dos cálculos realizados para computar cada elemento. A Seção 5 discute a metodologia para a avaliação dos pontos fortes e fracos dos países

Early Implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:Workforce Development and Unemployment Insurance Provisions

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Recovery Act) includes nearly $800 billion dollars in federal spending through a number of provisions intended to result in rapid economic stimulus nationwide, particularly in terms of providing jobs, employment services, and retraining for millions of unemployed workers. Programs allocated additional funds in the workforce development area include the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult Program ($494 million), the WIA Dislocated Worker program ($1,184 million), and the Wagner-Peyser Act ($148 million for unrestricted services and $247 million for reemployment services). In the area of unemployment insurance (UI), new outlays were estimated to be roughly$45 billion over 10 years at the time of enactment, with almost all outlays occurring in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The purpose of this project is to measure progress and challenges in implementing the workforce and UI provisions of the Recovery Act, to highlight new and promising practices, and to provide guidance to the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), the states, and local workforce investment areas. ETA is receiving monthly reports from the states on their expenditures and activities, but it will not receive systematic in-depth information about the implementation of the workforce components of the Recovery Act. This project is intended to help fill this gap by providing feedback to ETA based on document review, on-line surveys, and in-depth field visits to selected states and sub-state areas.Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resource