Putting Workers at the Center of Workforce Development: WIOA Policy Recommendations

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which funds half of all federal investments in workforce training and education and improves coordination between its core programs, is due for reauthorization. Our public workforce development system is intended to serve two primary users: jobseekers and employers. Yet it has tended to disproportionately serve the needs of employers by prioritizing pathways to in-demand occupations with little regard for whether those jobs offer a living wage or essential benefits. To maximize federal resources and better serve workers throughout the system, we suggest several reforms Congress should include in any WIOA reauthorization:

Recommendation 1: Expand worker representation on local workforce development boards. For decades, organized labor has helped to secure tangible benefits for workers. Unionized workers earn on average 11.2 percent more in wages than nonunionized peers. WIOA requires state and local workforce development boards (WDBs) to include representatives from labor organizations and union-affiliated Registered Apprenticeships. Yet the majority of WDB members must be business or industry representatives. This imbalance in representation and voting privileges heavily favors business and industry in the development of workforce policy and allocation of resources. Given the steady decline in organized labor, nonunion workers already have too little voice in our public workforce system.

While governors can establish additional requirements for state and local WDB representation, WIOA should be amended to expand the list of required WDB personnel so it includes community-based organizations that support workers and jobseekers, such as worker centers, and equalizes the share of employer and worker representation. With closer ties to worker centers and other worker-focused community-based organizations, workforce boards and American Job Centers can learn more about how to empower workers by, for example, educating workers about their rights or connecting them to worker advocacy campaigns. Working more closely with worker centers could also give workforce boards and American Job Centers more information on employers in the local economy and on the quality of available jobs.

Recommendation 2: Revise workforce performance metrics to better measure and incentivize quality job placement. The current performance accountability framework under WIOA is focused on measurable skills gain or interim progress toward employment and credential goals, credential attainment, employment, earnings, and effectiveness at serving employers. While these indicators are an important measure of whether youth and adults earn target credentials and enter the labor market after program completion, they fail to measure the relationship between workforce training and workforce outcomes. Furthermore, the accountability framework incentivizes rapid employment over high-quality, long-term employment.

WIOA should be amended to measure indicators of quality job placement, such as post-program earnings compared to the median earnings in metropolitan statistical area (MSA) or the regional living wage. Furthermore, reporting requirements should be amended to collect better information on whether program graduates are finding employment related to their field of training. In the absence of a federal framework, states like Washington have passed legislation requiring employers to provide quarterly reports of the standard occupational classifications or job titles of workers to assess the effectiveness of career pathway initiatives.

Recommendation 3: Revise criteria for state eligible training provider lists. WIOA requires states to maintain a list of providers approved to offer training to individuals eligible to receive WIOA funds. Local boards determine eligible programs and providers, initially based on a process outlined by the governor and then based on performance and cost data. To ensure that all U.S. training programs and providers position youth and adults to secure good jobs, WIOA should be amended to include specific requirements of providers seeking inclusion on the eligible training provider list (ETPL). For instance, training providers should have to demonstrate that programs are designed to prepare individuals for an occupation that provides a living wage, benefits, career advancement opportunities, and other hallmarks of job quality. A reauthorized WIOA could also introduce a mechanism for states to award preferential ETPL status and financial incentives to training partnerships that include high-road employers, are focused on ensuring job quality, and are effective at serving jobseekers.

Recommendation 4: Improve the collection, use, and dissemination of training and labor market data. WIOA requires training programs to collect individual data on program participants, including age, race, sex, and barriers to employment information. State agencies collect individual-level data on WIOA participants and rely on longitudinal systems to link workforce, education, and employment data. The strength of data matching varies by state, which influences the extent to which leaders can analyze training and employment outcomes.

More investments are needed to build the capacity of states to match data on participants with their outcomes, particularly with the inclusion of job quality measures in the next iteration of a workforce performance framework. Additionally, state workforce data dashboards, a requirement under WIOA, should be expanded to include disaggregated performance outcomes to spotlight labor market inequities. Labor market information should include data on employer concentration in major industries, and workforce development professionals should have access to this information when providing career counseling and other services. The workforce development system also needs better data on workers not currently included in unemployment insurance (via wage records), such as gig workers. This could be done by expanding UI to include gig workers or by improving access to 1099 tax records, used by gig workers and those who are self-employed.

Recommendation 5: Broaden the focus of American Job Centers to include job quality, worker well-being, and worker power. Under WIOA, American Job Centers have the single focus on connecting jobseekers with employment. The public workforce system provides a variety of employment-related labor exchange services, including, but not limited to, job search assistance, referral, and placement for jobseekers; re-employment services; and recruitment services to employers with job openings. WIOA should be amended to broaden the purview of American Job Centers to ensure that workforce staff are directing jobseekers to high-road employers. One way to achieve this goal would be to collect and share information with jobseekers about Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints, wage and hour violations, Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations, and other indicators of worker mistreatment. Equipping workforce staff with this information will improve their support of jobseekers. At present, American Job Centers collocate a number of entities, including adult education, literacy programs, and programming for specific groups like veterans, Native Americans, and farmworkers. American Job Centers should provide workers with information on how to report federal, state, and local labor law violations and they should support the collocation of worker centers.

Recommendation 6: Use governors’ reserve funds to advance job quality and worker empowerment. Funding is a key lever in the WIOA system—one that can be wielded to encourage greater focus on job quality. Congress can include language in WIOA requiring a portion of a governor’s reserve to be set aside to fund pilot projects to identify strategies for connecting workers to high-quality employment. Funding could also be used to conduct focus groups with workers to understand how the workforce development system served them and how this service could be improved in the areas of job quality and worker empowerment. Alternatively, Congress can clarify that governors’ reserve funds may be used for this purpose.

Recommendation 7: Strengthen capacity in the system to serve flexible workers and raise the quality of flexible work. Technological advancements have disrupted our labor market, and flexible workers like gig workers, freelancers, and others in nontraditional work arrangements have become a larger part of our labor force: recent estimates show 41 million workers fit into this category. Flexible workers are more likely to be Black, Latino, parents, and older than traditional W-2 workers. While there are some advantages to gig work—particularly the flexibility around when and how long to work— these workers are make less than their state minimum wage, platform algorithms often result in wage theft, and gig workers are more likely to be injured on the job. These workers have no right to overtime pay, unemployment insurance, or workers’ compensation. A new model tested in the UK and by local workforce leaders in Long Beach, California, Portland, Oregon, and soon Chicago, Illinois allows workforce boards or another such entity to serve as an employer of record, combining smaller jobs from multiple employers in order to provide flexible workers with W-2s instead of 1099s. This allows workers to aggregate simple benefits over multiple sources of income, and could allow them to apply for loans, tax credits, and other supports. Businesses and other organizations are able to get help for nonstandard work, while contributing to more stable work and benefits for workers, at a reasonable cost. The preliminary results show that when workers are given technology and support, they can maintain control over their schedules, finding more consistent work over multiple gigs.

WIOA language should be updated to ensure that flexible workers can access training and support through the workforce development system. Specifically, reauthorization should: allow flexible workers access to career services and training; ensure workers caring for family members have access to flexible work, career services, and training; encourage states to test out workforce boards or nonprofit organizations as employers of record; and establish guidelines to learn more about flexible workers in each state. For more detail on these points, see Modernizing WIOA: How to Include the 41 Million Workers Missing from the Reauthorization Bill.