Few things are more unsettling to individuals and their families than the loss of a job. Widespread unemployment can also destabilize the U.S. economy. Thankfully, the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Program financially supports people who lose their job through no fault of their own as long as they meet certain eligibility requirements. As a joint state-federal program, each state runs its own UI program under guidance from the Department of Labor (DOL). People who meet the requirements receive monthly financial support, at about 50 percent of their previous wages, for around six months after a job loss.
In 2018, Congress authorized the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program to go beyond financial support for those experiencing job loss by providing workers with opportunities to improve their job search skills. The program included provisions for ensuring workers meet ongoing requirements for receiving financial and job search assistance. The challenge for DOL is knowing if what individual states are doing is working to enforce eligibility requirements and get people back to work quickly. To that end, DOL turned to Abt to support increased evaluation of RESEA, deepen states’ evaluation capacities, and lay the groundwork for a culture of evidence-building in RESEA programs.
Abt delivers ongoing and extensive technical assistance on behalf of DOL to support states to meet RESEA evidence requirements and ensure that new insights are used to improve services and outcomes for participants. The RESEA program itself also prioritizes evidence generation and use through “tiered evidence” requirements produced through state-level evaluations to promote ongoing improvement nationwide in efforts to reemploy individuals receiving UI.
The same year Congress enacted RESEA, they also passed the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (or the Evidence Act) to bolster efforts to integrate evidence building into federal policies and programs. The DOL worked to build states’ capacity in conducting high quality evaluations that produced that evidence of effectiveness, reflecting its commitment to bringing the Evidence Act to life through learning and improvements. When RESEA launched, only a limited number of high-quality evaluations were conducted and only in a few states. So, among the biggest challenges for the Abt team was to build the capacity and culture needed to implement and sustain state-led evidence building.
At the outset of the project in 2018, the Abt team developed a list of options for how DOL could synthesize evidence gathered from states and also reviewed available studies and identified gaps in available research. The team also created a multi-faceted strategy to build complementary types of evidence to fill those gaps. The team developed webinars, a toolkit, a helpline where states can receive customized assistance, and other resources to strengthen states’ capacities to create their own rigorous evaluations of their RESEA programs.
To date, thousands of state and local staff have attended the more than a dozen webinars conducted by the team. Nearly all states have notified DOL that they are developing or implementing plans to conduct evaluations. In early 2023, 20 states had evaluation data collection underway while another 14 states were preparing to begin. And there are strong signs that a culture of evidence-use is growing: In a striking finding from Abt’s 2023 annual surveys of RESEA programs, 38 percent of states reported using available data “a lot” to understand the program compared to only 19 percent of states three years ago.
Among the lessons learned thus far in RESEA evidence-building efforts: Abt found adapting and responding to states’ needs in evaluation and planning and implementation shifted over time. Early on, states needed help understanding what legislation required of them to conduct research. The states then needed support learning about different types of evaluations and identifying an appropriate design for their context. Next, states needed guidance selecting an independent evaluator and developing a cycle of learning about their RESEA program and using study findings to improve it.
The implementation of RESEA and its accompanying evaluation activities is one of the most prominent examples of large-scale evidence-building initiatives in the federal government. It provides critical information for similar efforts by agencies across the federal government. Abt Global is making an impact, leading efforts to build and use evidence to improve public programs and policies—something increasingly being made a priority by the federal government and required by law.