Coping with Layoffs: Current State Strategies for Better Rapid Response

This issue brief from the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University examines the issue of state rapid response practices that are designed to coordinate the delivery of a wide array of services to displaced workers. It summarizes the efforts of several states, identified by national experts as having promising practices, in the service delivery,organization, and evaluation of rapid response activities. It particularly highlights those states that combine post-layoff activities with strong proactive layoff aversion and worker transition assistance

Social Enterprise Businesses: A Strategy for Creating Good Jobs for People with Disabilities

Over the past 10 years, there has been a tremendous growth in entities known as social enterprise businesses. This approach has been particularly promising in creating new opportunities for individuals with disabilities in emerging and growth industries. Over the past five years, the Kessler Foundation's "Transition to Work" grants program has invested $18 million toward the goal of creating job opportunities for people with disabilities. This investment has included support for several social enterprise businesses in New Jersey, stemming from the Foundation's believe that these businesses have potential for increasing employment of people with disabilities

Unlocking the Treasure Chest of Labor Market Information: Crucial Information for Job Seekers, Educators, and Employers in a Tough Economy

Quality labor market data and analysis is critical to developing effective market-driven workforce and economic strategies in states, regions, and localities. Such information can be complex, intimidating, and overwhelming to many users, however. This issue brief offers a framework for understanding workforce information, including a summary of the different types of consumers of information and their need for comprehensive data and analysis about the labor market. It identifies the publicly available information sources that produce the data and provides suggestions on how to identify and address the gaps between user needs and the availability of reliable and timely data and analytical capacity to enable effective and informed decision-making by data consumers. Finally, it recommends ways in which states and local areas can make workforce information more readily available to consumers who must make important decisions

Understanding the Workforce Needs of New Jersey's Public Health and Other Disaster Management Employers

This report explores the priority workforce needs of New Jersey's public disaster management system. An advisory group of disaster management-related employers from law enforcement and state and local public health systems and educational institutions was convened in the spring of 2006 to identify priority workforce skill needs. Researchers also conducted interviews with state officials, domestic security, public health, and disaster planning experts, as well as reviews of labor market information, state and national websites, and industry and scholarly literature

September 11th Fund Employment Assistance Program: Performance Outcomes

This report examines the anticipated and actual performance outcomes of the Employment Assistance Program, an initiative to enable workers displaced by the 9/11 terrorist attacks to connect with employment services, career counselors, job placement opportunities, education, training, and other resources

Ready and Able: Addressing Labor Market Needs and Building Productive Careers for People with Disabilities through Collaborative Approaches

The report describes market-driven practices that increase hiring, retention, promotion and accommodation of people with disabilities through partnerships with employers.Approaches profiled in the research include: collaborations between major national employers and public sector agencies; models that focus on an industry or occupational sector; private and "alternative" staffing services that place people with disabilities; partnerships that expand opportunities for college students and graduates with disabilities; and local and regional hubs that connect people with disabilities and employers. The research also profiles two organizations where lead disability and employment partnerships act as catalysts

One-Stop Innovations: Leading Change Under the WIA One-Stop System Final Report

This publication reports the findings of a national review of One-Stop Career Centers operating under the Workforce Investment Act. It details the success stories and promising practices of One-Stop Career Centers

Trying to Become the Person I Was Before: 9/11 Displaced Workers and the Employment Assistance Program

This report examines the September 11th Fund's Employment Assistance Program (EAP), an effort to enable workers displaced by the 9/11 terrorist attacks to connect with employment services, career counselors, job placement opportunities, education, training, and other resources. The report discusses the EAP's different services, and analyzes participants' employment status prior to the attacks and following their participation in the EA