Key Institutional Features of American Job Centers

American Job Centers (AJCs) are the cornerstone of the nation’s system for delivering public workforce services, providing resources for millions of Americans seeking employment information and access to employment, work-related training, and education. The AJCs brings together key workforce, education, and other partners with the goal of providing comprehensive services to individuals searching for jobs and seeking to build their skills, and to employers looking for skilled workers to fill their job openings. This study of 40 comprehensive AJCs illustrates the complex and rich variation that defines and shapes the AJC service delivery system as it transitioned to the WIOA in 2014.

WIOA reaffirms the role of a customer-focused AJC service delivery system and encourages greater collaboration and coordination across a wide range of partner programs to achieve an integrated service delivery system for job seekers and employers. The structure and strength of the AJC service delivery system depend heavily on the involvement of multiple programs and organizations, and the partnerships that exist between them. Variation in the mix, roles and co-location arrangements of partner programs can lead to important differences in how comprehensive AJCs are staffed and managed.

WIOA reaffirms the central role that AJCs play in the workforce system and places an even greater emphasis on the goal of providing AJC customers—job seekers, workers, and employers—with expanded access to seamless service delivery across multiple programs. Overall, WIOA’s vision for the AJC system stresses the importance of excellent customer service, seamless service delivery, innovative and effective service design, integrated management systems, and high-quality staffing.

This 33-page brief, funded by U.S. DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office and Employment and Training Administration, analyzes data from July to December of 2016. Please note that this profile (Key Institutional Features of American Job Centers) details the first in the series of four briefs examining the key features of AJCs during the transition from WIA to WIOA.

The four papers developed for this study provide information on key features of the AJC system and provide insights on issues relevant to the public workforce system. This review was conducted during the transition from WIA to WIOA. Given the variation in the mix of partners, staff size of AJCs, and availability of shared data, the supervision models and practices varied. Some AJCs adopted supervision practices to improve coordination and collaboration, whereas others took a more program-specific approach. The findings highlighted in this brief include:

• On average, AJCs identified 7 of the 19 core and required partner programs; about one-quarter (9) indicated 5 or fewer of these partner programs. Overall, AJCs had an average of 10 partner programs with a full-or part-time regular presence. All AJCs also had non-required (optional) partners such as local nonprofits, mental health organizations, or childcare.
• Of the 40 AJCs, all but one had Adult and Dislocated Worker programs located full-time at the AJC.
• Fourteen AJCs noted that they already had shifted to providing more services for youth, including paid and unpaid work experiences, and were trying to recruit more out-of-school youth.
• Vocational Rehabilitation had some on-site presence at 26 of the 40 AJCs. Of the 14 AJCs with off-site VR presence, many were located within the community in close proximity to the AJC.
• Adult Basic Education had the least amount of on-site presence at the AJCs. Only 11 AJCs had some kind of ABE presence on-site.
• Despite the overarching goal to improve employment outcomes for job seekers and meet the needs of employers, most AJCs (29 of 40) did not have any performance data that were used for center-wide management purposes.
• About one-quarter of the AJCs (11 of 40) established performance measures beyond what was required by partner programs at the Federal or state level.
• To supplement formula funding sources, most AJCs used the additional funding to support AJC operations and services, and to serve specific populations.
• Outside of the core programs, AJCs most frequently reported partnerships were with TANF and other DOL-funded programs.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2018
• Author(s): B. English, D. Kogan, E. Brown, H. Betesh, K. Dunham, L. Rosenberg, P. Holcomb, S. Osborn
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies