The Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration: Implementation and Early Impacts

The Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD), funded by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, is testing seven transitional jobs programs that targeted people recently released from prison or unemployed parents who had fallen behind in child support payments. The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families is also supporting the evaluation. The evaluation uses a random assignment research design. Program group members were given access to the ETJD programs and control group members had access to other services in the community. To date, the evaluation has studied the implementation of the programs and followed the two groups for one year after enrollment.

This report presents early results from the Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD), which is using a rigorous random assignment research design to evaluate seven transitional jobs programs. The programs targeted either individuals who were recently released from prison, or parents who did not have custody of their children (“noncustodial” parents), who owed child support, and who were unable to meet their obligations because they were unemployed. The organizations operating the ETJD programs designed their models to address what they thought were the shortcomings of previous transitional jobs programs, as revealed by previous evaluation efforts. The ETJD project was conceived and funded by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families is also supporting the evaluation. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, is leading the project under contract to DOL along with two partners: Abt Associates and MEF Associates. This report describes the implementation of the ETJD programs and presents information on how they affected participants’ outcomes in the first year after enrollment.

The final report tied to this study is available on Workforce System Strategies and is linked as related content to this resource.

While most ETJD grantees were able to implement the transitional jobs models they proposed, some struggled to put into operation some of the enhanced components of their models as intended (and even some of the basic components), as described below. Most of the ETJD grantees had experience operating transitional jobs programs, usually with their chosen target populations. Nonetheless, they were required to implement enhancements to their existing models and to dramatically increase the number of participants they served. To meet their sample-size goals, grantees focused a lot of attention on recruitment and on improving relations with referral partners like child support and criminal justice agencies.

The timeline of the ETJD project did not allow for a pilot or practice period before the programs had to start implementing their enhancements and enrolling people. Although the programs had been operating before ETJD, they might have benefited from a pilot period to practice the enhancements and stabilize recruitment.

ETJD programs encountered challenges found commonly in many employment programs. They had difficulty helping participants transition to unsubsidized jobs in the private sector, experienced staff turnover in vital positions, and saw partnerships with other community providers fail. Most of the specific enhancements that ETJD grantees originally proposed for the project were put in place. However, a few enhancements that they initially proposed — such as occupational training, wage supplements, and the tiered hybrid model approach — were not implemented as planned. As a result, the ETJD evaluation could not assess the effects of those enhanced models.

Overall, however, despite these challenges encountered in implementation, the ETJD project appears to provide strong evidence regarding the effectiveness of transitional jobs models with the enhancements mentioned above.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2016
• Author(s): Cindy Redcross; Bret Barden; Dan Bloom
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Damon Jones
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies