Summary
In 2002, Congress enacted the Jobs for Veterans Act (JVA), which modified two Department of Labor (Labor) programs that specifically target veteran job seekers: the Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOP) and the Local Veterans' Employment Representative (LVER) program. However, questions have been raised about the adequacy of performance information on services to veterans by these and other employment programs. In this report, GAO examined (1) the extent to which DVOP and LVER performance information reflects services and outcomes for veterans; (2) the extent to which performance information on veterans paints a clear picture of their use of one-stop services; and (3) what Labor is doing to improve the quality of performance data and better understand program impact and outcomes for veterans.
Performance information for the DVOP and LVER programs provides some sense of services and outcomes for veterans, but is weakened by several factors. In July 2005, Labor adopted new performance measures for the programs, but not all have been fully implemented. For example, states are held accountable for helping veterans get and keep jobs, but are not yet held accountable for their average earnings once employed, as they are for other programs. Additionally, having separate performance measures for the DVOP and LVER programs fails to acknowledge the similarity of the populations they serve and duties they perform. Furthermore, it is difficult to assess outcomes over time or across states because of frequent changes in reporting requirements that prevent establishing reliable trend data. Labor's data on veteran job seekers paint an unclear picture of their use of other employment and training services in the one-stop system, despite the use of common performance measures across programs. Although many veterans use services other than those provided by the DVOP and LVER programs, key employment programs vary in how well their data on veteran job seekers are shared across programs, making it difficult to know how many veterans are served. In addition, statutory differences in the definitions of veterans hinder efforts to standardize data across employment programs. Moreover, Labor has no means of assessing whether priority of service for veterans has been implemented in various employment programs. Labor has taken some steps to improve the quality of performance data and better understand outcomes for veterans. For example, Labor requires states to validate key performance data. Labor has also planned an integrated data reporting system that would track individual veterans' progress through the one-stop system. However, states have raised concerns about the timelines and its current implementation date is unclear. Furthermore, while outcome information on veterans is helpful, it cannot measure whether the outcomes are due to the program or other factors. While Labor has sponsored research on services to veterans, it has not yet conducted the impact evaluation required by law to assess the effectiveness of one-stop services.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
George A. Scott
Government Accountability Office: Education, Workforce, and Income Security
(202) 512-7003
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To provide a better picture of services and outcomes for veteran job seekers, improve program reporting, and facilitate priority of service, the Secretary of Labor should ensure that states are given adequate direction and sufficient time to implement the Employment and Training Administration's planned integrated data reporting system and make necessary changes.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: In process
Comments: Labor plans to continue working with states as it implements its planned integrated reporting system, now slated for implementation by July 2009. The system awaits OMB approval.
Recommendation: To provide a better picture of services and outcomes for veteran job seekers, improve program reporting, and facilitate priority of service, the Secretary of Labor should consolidate all performance measures for the DVOP and LVER programs, including those for disabled and recently separated veterans.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: In process
Comments: Labor has piloted three consolidated performance measures for Program Year 2008 that apply to all veterans served by the DVOP and LVER programs. These include the entered employment rate, the retention rate, and the average earnings for veterans and other eligible persons. However, Labor has not consolidated the performance measures for disabled and recently separated veterans.
Recommendation: To provide a better picture of services and outcomes for veteran job seekers, improve program reporting, and facilitate priority of service, the Secretary of Labor should comply with JVA's requirement to implement a weighting system for the DVOP and LVER performance measures that takes into account the difficulty of serving veterans with particular barriers to employment.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: In process
Comments: For program year 2008, VETS has piloted the negotiation of a single weighted performance measure to account for the entered employment of all veterans served by either the DVOP or LVER programs.
Recommendation: To provide a better picture of services and outcomes for veteran job seekers, improve program reporting, and facilitate priority of service, the Secretary of Labor should develop legislative proposals for appropriate changes to the definitions of veterans across employment and training programs to ensure consistency.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: In process
Comments: Labor has not yet developed legislative proposals for changing the definitions of veterans across employment and training programs. However, Labor's proposed regulations for Priority of Service take an administrative step toward standardizing the definition of veteran.
Recommendation: To provide a better picture of services and outcomes for veteran job seekers, improve program reporting, and facilitate priority of service, the Secretary of Labor should ensure that Labor moves forward with an impact evaluation for the one-stop system under the Workforce Investment Act as we recommended in 2004, and that the evaluation's sampling methodology includes veterans in sufficient numbers to allow analysis of the impact of services to veterans in the one-stop system, including those served by the DVOP and LVER programs.
Agency Affected: Department of Labor
Status: In process
Comments: Labor has awarded a contract for an impact evaluation of the one-stop system under the Workforce Investment Act, but it is not yet clear whether the analysis will include veterans.
