Does Occupational Training by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program Really Help Reemployment?...

“This paper measures the success of training provision as the match between the occupations of training and employment. Also, this paper investigates whether the match improves the post-participation outcomes of participants, such as reemployment rates, post-participation earnings, wage replacement rates, and retention rates, using the Trade Act Participant Report (TAPR), acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. This is the first academic paper that utilizes the TAPR dataset. The dataset shows a 37.82% of matching rate among trainees. While participants' educational attainment, age, and ethnicity largely determine the post-participation outcome measures, occupational skills training improves reemployment rates by 2 to 5 percentage points and retention rates by 2.7 percentage points. Matching between occupations of training and entered employment is highly beneficial to participants in achieving higher wage replacement. These results suggest that the focus of the TAA program on provision of training services can be more fruitful if emphasis is on choosing the right occupations for participants through career assessment and counseling so the trainees can find the occupation interesting and appropriate for their skill-level and can find a job using the skills acquired through the training” (ETA Abstract). (Abstractor: Author)

Full publication title: Does Occupational Training by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program Really Help Reemployment? Success Measured as Matching

- "The analyses of TAA participant data conducted for this paper supports that occupational skills training improve the post-participation outcomes of participants" (p.4). - "For all exit years, trainees show 10 percentage points higher reemployment rates" (p.8). - "Trainees display higher wage replacement rates for all years, but the differences between those of trainees and non-trainees narrow over time" (p.8). - "Trainees show slightly higher retention rates than non-trainees ..." (p.8). - "It is hard to find a distinctive pattern between outcome measures for trainees" who were reemployed in the occupation for which they trained and those who were reemployed in other occupations" (p.8). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Park, Jooyoun
• Organizational Author(s): Kent State University
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
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• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies