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Research Projects

The Impact of Human Capital in the American Labor Market Series

The Fiscal Impacts of Increasing Philadelphia's High School Graduation Rate

Summer Job Outlook for American Teens

Opportunity Rising: Increases in Human Capital Investment and Declines in Disconnection among Teens and Young Adults in Los Angeles

Impact Evaluation of New England Institute of Technology’s Shipbuilding/Marine Advanced Manufacturing Institute (SAMI) Program TAACCCT II Grant

Evaluating the Effectiveness of College Crusade GEAR-UP Dropout Prevention and College Enrollment Efforts

College Crusade of Rhode Island and U.S. Department of Education

This research project is composed of both a formative evaluation designed to provide ongoing measures of program activity and outcomes relative to the program performance benchmarks and a summative evaluation designed to assess the impact of GEAR-UP interventions on a number of key outcomes including high school completion, college enrollment and college retention.

College and Career Outcomes of Philadelphia’s Public School Students: Examining the Pathways to and Determinants of Successful Post-High School Outcomes of College Enrollment, College Persistence, Employment, and Earnings

Philadelphia Youth Network

This research study is designed to identify and estimate the determinants of successful transitions from high school to the labor market and to college and persistence in college among Philadelphia public school students, with the goal of identifying major transition barriers needing either program or policy intervention.

From Diplomas to Degrees [PDF]

Examining the Effects of Health Care Cost Reduction on the Industry’s Workforce in Massachsetts

Commonwealth Corporation

Working with the Commonwealth Corporation in Massachusetts this project included examining the health care workforce in the entire state and across seven regions of the state in the period to the passage of the 2012 health care cost reduction legislation. The study is designed to produce as a detailed point in time snapshot of the state’s health care workforce that will serve as a baseline against which future changes in the health care workforce will be compared to assess changes over the first few years of the legislation.

The Greater Philadelphia Labor Market and Opportunities for Human Capital Development

JOIN

In 2013, the CEO Council for Growth and the Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN) partnered with the Drexel Center for Labor Markets and Policy to develop a detailed analysis of the regional labor market. This thorough examination of the region’s labor supply and demand was developed to aid regional employers, funders, education and training providers, and community members in strategic planning and decision-making related to human capital and talent initiatives. The papers in this series identify industries within the Greater Philadelphia job market that have led the economic recovery in the region over the last several years, provide information about the occupational structure in these industries and how to interpret the data on occupational staffing patterns in these growth sectors and demonstrate a new method to identify the specific human resource requirements—abilities, knowledge, skills and behavioral traits—for successful employment within an occupation.

Employment and Schooling Activities of Youth in Lawrence

Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board

This analysis examines the labor force status of teens and young adults including the preparation of estimates of labor force participation, employment rates, annual earnings, annual hours of work and industry and occupation of employment. CLMP also measured the rate of disconnection of teens and young adults in the region and in communities within the region, subject to the limitations placed on us by the ACS public use data files. As requested by MVWIB, CLMP produced estimates of disconnection rates for a number of areas in Massachusetts that are commonly characterized as having a “Gateway City” within the region.

Growth and Change in South Dakota Labor Markets: An Assessment of the State’s Labor Market Imbalances in a Weak National Recovery

The Governor’s Office of South Dakota

This research project includes analysis of the trends in size and composition of labor supply in South Dakota and measures the labor force utilization in South Dakota. Additional analysis includes the post-secondary labor supply as well as the trends in the level and industrial composition of labor demand in the state. In addition to understanding the industry sources of employment growth in South Dakota, this project explores the occupational structure of labor demand and the occupational impacts of this growth.

Research on New Immigrants and the College Labor Market

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education

This research project includes analysis of the degree of utilization of the productive potential of college-educated immigrants in the US labor markets, with special reference to outcomes associated with degrees earned from U.S. institution relative to degrees awarded abroad. This study will examine labor market utilization or underutilization of immigrant college graduates in the form of labor force participation, unemployment, underemployment and mal employment and provide an overall estimate of the underutilization problems confronting those immigrant college graduates with no earned U.S degrees.

Labor Market Analysis for Vocational Rehabilitation

Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the U.S. Department of Education

CLMP staff will provide planning, consultation, and training services for the State and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation around the use of labor market information (LMI) to improve employment outcomes for State/DVR consumers. In this on-going project, we will assess the current use of LMI, develop a curriculum and training materials on effective use of LMI data, and provide training to state staff and contractors around use of LMI to improve employment outcomes for State/DVR consumers.

Rhode Island Higher Education Performance Measurement and Labor Market Research

Rhode Island Office of Higher Education

This research includes the development of a set of indicators to annually measure the performance of the public higher education institutions in Rhode Island. Produce annual school to public higher education transition reports for each high school in the state. Analyze data from the Data Warehouse maintained by the Center for Labor Markets and Policy to study the retention, persistence and graduation of students in the public higher education system in the state. Examine labor market developments at the national, regional and local level and interpret findings as they pertain to higher education policy and programs.

Developing a Marketing Approach to Job Development and Placement

Commonwealth Corporation

Create a web-based tool-- The Job Guide-- that allows workforce development organizations to target job development and marketing activities at specific employment, based on a market segmentation strategy. The Job Guide system developed under this project seeks to support job development efforts that target specific employers most likely to hire clients served by career centers, educational institutions and other education and training organizations. The Job Guide segments the labor market into industry-occupation segments to provide targeted job search for jobseekers. Included in the Job Guide approach is a client assessment tool and employer relations management tool in addition to an industry-occupation labor market segmentation system. This initiative also includes the provision of training on a marketing approach to job development and placement and labor market information to education, training and workforce development professionals.

Why has the Youth Employment Rate Collapsed? A Qualitative Exploration

Commonwealth Corporation

Employment rates of teens and young adults have declined precipitously since the late 1990s limiting the opportunity to acquire the work experience that can bolster their employment and earnings experiences over their working lives. This research is a qualitative pilot study that seeks to identify some of the major barriers that have emerged to employment of young people, to identify those groups who have replaced young people in industries and occupations that have been mainstays of employment for young people. It seeks to examine the way that the education and workforce development system might be able to rebuild pathways to employment for non-college bound teens and young adults, to better understand the nature of hiring transactions in the high school labor market, and to assess how high schools, community colleges and workforce development programs could better meet the recruitment and hiring needs of employers.

The Post-Secondary Transition and Retention of High School Seniors with Disabilities

National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research and Institute for Human Centered Design

This study created a new approach to developing highly accurate estimates of the post secondary enrollment and retention of high school seniors who were enrolled in special education and related programs for students with a variety of disabilities. The study is based upon a unique unit record database developed by the Center for Labor Markets and Policy containing the demographic and socioeconomic traits, academic proficiencies in high school, and high school behaviors of high school graduates combined with data on their postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and graduation.

Understanding the Labor Market Experiences of Persons with Disabilities

National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research and Institute for Human Centered Design

This research analyzed the employment and earnings of persons with disabilities along a variety of dimensions. One area of focus was on Disability and the Great Recession that examined the impact of the Great Recession on the labor force participation, employment and underutilization experiences of persons with disabilities. A second area of focus examined the potential influence of mal employment among college graduates with disabilities on their annual earnings deficit relative to non-disabled college graduates. A third key area examined the labor market experiences of young persons with alternative types of mental disabilities. This study also examined the impact of an aging workforce on expected rates of disability among those participating in the job market in the coming years.

Aging Labor Force and Human Resource Management

The New England Council

This study utilized a number of data bases as well as focus groups and related qualitative methods to gain an understanding of the aging of the workforce in New England and the nation and its implications for human resource management in the business community. Research was conducted at the regional and state level that examined the historic and current labor force activities of the working-age population and produced projections of future labor force growth. Focus group studies examined current and expected employer adjustments to a sharp rise in the share of their workforce in the age 55 and older category.

Disconnected Youth in Los Angeles-Long Beach

Cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach/ U.S. Conference of Mayors

This was a follow-up study to an earlier analysis that examined the problems of disconnected youth in the Los Angeles-Long Beach California area that was conducted early last decade. This study produced updated data and analysis on the labor market problems of teens and young adults in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area.

Literacy and Educational Attainment in Philadelphia’s Labor Market

Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board

This research included the preparation of a wide range of research reports and data analysis for the development of workforce development policy and strategies in Philadelphia. One key study examined the labor market experiences and educational attainment of City residents relative to the changing industrial and occupational structure of employment in the City. A second effort estimated the literacy proficiencies of City and suburban residents relative to the literacy requirements of employers in key labor market segments in the City and Metro Region economy.

Post-Secondary Access and Completion in New England

Nellie Mae Foundation

This study was designed to develop a broader and deeper set of measures of post-secondary educational access at the regional and state level. Using data from the American Community Survey, this study devised measures of educational attainment, college enrolment and college completion for a wide range of groups beyond the normal gender/race/ethnic categories and developed more comprehensive e measures of educational success than the currently widely employed simple access measures.

High School Climate and Post-Secondary Enrollment

Nellie Mae Foundation

Research study to measure the higher education utilization rates among different subgroups of the population based on meaningful and quantifiable methods to measure the underserved population in higher education among these groups. Using a unique database, this study researched the effects of cognitive and non-cognitive traits of high school students as well as high school and family environmental factors on the transition to and retention in postsecondary education.

Estimating the Cost of a Universal Access/High Quality Early Education and Care System in Massachusetts

Strategies for Children

This research project produced a series of papers designed to produce systematic, objective and evidence based estimates of the cost of providing universal access/high quality early education and care in Massachusetts. Using a variety of data sources including a variety of compensation data we produced a range of estimates for implementing an early education system.

Latent Demand for High Quality Early Education and Care: Implications for Program Costs

The Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation

This study utilized a willingness to pay methodology and household survey to estimate the potential demand for high quality early education and care in a low income urban area. These findings were then used to produce a series of papers examining the incremental costs of providing expanded high quality early education in the City of Springfield Massachusetts and estimated the labor supply needs to organize and deliver the proposed high quality early education to children in the city.