Worker Retraining
Do displaced workers get adequate training for new jobs?
By Susan Kellam

About 20 million American workers were displaced in the 1980s, mostly from manufacturing jobs. Now, corporate restructuring and white-collar layoffs are adding highly trained workers and middle managers to the ranks of the displaced. Most laid-off workers will not get their old jobs back, and many are being forced to take new positions with less pay. The heated debate last year over the North American. . . .

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Should training for displaced workers be significantly upgraded?

Human Resources Development the employment and training arm of the AFL-CIO.. From North American Outlook, September 1993.

Walter Corson Vice President, Mathematica Policy Research, a for-profit public policy research organization based in Princeton, N.J.. Our findings do not indicate that making training mandatory had a significant impact on the estimated employment and earnings differences of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) trainees and other Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA) recipients. However, we also did not find strong evidence that training had a substantial positive effect on employment and earnings, at least in the first three years after the initial unemployment insurance claim. Given this uncertainty about the returns to training, we believe that training participation should be voluntary rather than mandatory for TRA recipients.

Programs for Dislocated Workers

Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA): Assists workers dislocated as a result of federal policies reducing barriers to foreign trade. A worker is certified for the program after the Department of Labor determines that increased imports contributed to decreased sales and, consequently, to worker layoffs. Established by the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, TAA provides training, employment services and job search and relocation allowances.

Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Act (EDWAA): Provides retraining to dislocated workers who are unlikely to return to their previous industries or occupations. Offered through a network of local service-delivery offices, EDWAA provides basic education and literacy classes as well as on-the-job and skills training. EDWAA replaced Title III of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) in 1988.

Clean Air Employment Transition Assistance: Provides retraining and readjustment aid to workers dislocated because of a firm's compliance with the 1990 Clean Air Act. The program is under the auspices of JTPA and offers services through the local service- delivery system.

Defense Conversion Adjustment: Provides retraining and readjustment aid to workers dislocated by defense cutbacks. The program was authorized in the 1991 Defense Authorization Act and comes under the JTPA.

Defense Diversification Program: Provides retraining and readjustment assistance to workers dislocated by defense cutbacks and base closures. Authorized by the 1993 Defense Authorization Act, the program comes under the JTPA and seeks to give workers slated to be displaced the skills needed to convent military facilities to civilian use. The program also provides limited funding to implement new production technologies to facilitate base conversions.