National Job Corps Study: The Benefits and Costs of Job Corps.

摘要

Job Corps plays a central role in federal efforts to provide employment assistance to disadvantaged youths. The program's goal is to help disadvantaged youths become more responsible, employable, and productive citizens by providing intensive and comprehensive services, including education, vocational skills training, and counseling. The services are mostly provided in a residential setting. Each year, Job Corps serves more than 60,000 new enrollees at a cost of more than $1 billion. The National Job Corps Study, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, was designed to provide information about the effectiveness of Job Corps in attaining its goal. The cornerstone of the National Job Corps Study was the random assignment of all youths found eligible for Job Corps to either a program or a control group. Program group members could enroll in Job Corps. Control group members could not, but they could enroll in all other programs available to them in their communities. This report presents the findings of a benefit-cost analysis of Job Corps. In a benefit-cost analysis, a dollar value is placed on each program impact. By measuring impacts in dollars, a benefit-cost analysis enables policymakers to compare the diverse benefits of Job Corps with its costs. It provides a way of assessing the relative size of each impact and the cost-effectiveness of the program as a whole.