Evidence Building Capacity In State Workforce Agencies

Not all state workforce agencies have the resources or capacity to pursue their priority research efforts, however, particularly when research relies on access to a secure data sharing infrastructure, cross-state information, and advanced data analytic and research skills. During November and December 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) conducted a survey of state workforce agencies to better understand their research capacity and assistance needs. NASWA sent the survey to all state workforce agency administrators, with additional invitations sent to labor market information (LMI), education and training, and unemployment insurance (UI) directors, and asked that each state workforce agency coordinate one response for the state.

Thirty-nine states provided complete responses to the survey. The great majority of responses were submitted by state LMI divisions (77%), with a few coming from state workforce agency Secretary or Administrator’s Offices (13%) or state WIOA Title I units (3%), and the remaining coming from some other unit or division of the state workforce agency.

This survey was designed as a follow-up to the national scan of then-current research and analysis capacity of state workforce agencies conducted by NASWA in 2016. In all, 41 states participated in the earlier study, which was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL).

The report provides detailed response data from the participating states that highlights areas of technical assistance needs that have evolved as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors note that there are several similarities between the 2016 survey and this one conducted in 2020. In the 2020 survey, states coalesced around state and local real-time labor market information, outcomes/impacts of reemployment efforts targeted on UI claimants, and WIOA training program impacts. The authors noted that this was not surprising considering the greater significance of tracking the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and providing benefits and services to UI claimants in 2020. In the 2020 survey, when asked for which technical aspects of research they most need training, technical assistance or other support, state workforce agencies focused on five areas:

• Advanced data analysis/analytics
• Program evaluation/evaluation design/research questions
• Reporting and communicating research results
• Data collection and management

An addition to the 2020 survey was to ask state workforce agencies in which aspects of governance and data sharing they most need training, technical assistance or other support. In response, state workforce agencies focused on the following five areas:

• Learning and generating ideas and products with other units/agencies in the state
• Cross-state data sharing
• Cross-unit or cross-agency data sharing
• Learning and generating ideas and products with other states
  Data governance and stewardship

The paper summarizes the three most pressing needs reported as state and local real-time labor market information (79%), outcomes/impacts of reemployment efforts targeted on UI claimants (67%), and WIOA training program impacts (49%). Also of interest were measures of success for fraud detection and remediation efforts (41%), and employment and career services impacts (33%).  While information to address economic mobility and jobs quality was a priority for a smaller percentage of states (15%), the fact that six states are focused on these broader, longer-term goals in the midst of a pandemic may indicate something of the future focus in many states.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2021
• Author(s): Chocolaad, Y., Sullivan, L., Forland, C., Wheeler, S.
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies