Reemployment Services Evidence: A Collection of Briefs on RESEA Program Components Evaluation to Advance RESEA Program Evidence

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Chief Evaluation Office, in close collaboration with the Employment and Training Administration, is supporting and catalyzing research to build evidence on effective strategies in the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program. The RESEA program is a federally-funded, state-run effort to improve employment outcomes for recipients of unemployment insurance (UI), strengthen UI program integrity, and promote alignment between UI and the broader workforce development system. 2018 federal legislation requires that states’ RESEA programs be supported by evidence, allowing states to use a portion of their RESEA grants to fund evaluations that generate strategic data and insights.

These Evidence Briefs summarize current evidence on reemployment strategies to help states refine their programs and identify topics on which they could contribute to building evidence. The briefs describe findings from research on the effectiveness of reemployment interventions and strategies for UI claimants frequently used in RESEA programs. Each of the three briefs in this compendium reviews and considers the evidence and gaps in one of three subject areas:

• Claimant selection, scheduling, and attendance policies
• Basic career services
• Individualized career services.

The authors suggest what can be learned from that evidence to inform RESEA programs and where more evidence is needed.