This study examines how child support arrears affect fathers’ labor force participation. It relies on longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. Findings from analyses of these data suggest that child support arrears result in declines in average weeks worked in the formal labor market in subsequent time periods. These findings are driven by the behaviors of fathers who had relatively high amounts of arrears and no income in the previous year and are mostly robust to tests for selection into no work or low levels of work by fathers. Findings also suggest that arrears obligations that are low relative to income result in increases in the probability that fathers engage in any formal work. Arrears are not statistically significantly related to informal labor force participation. This study highlights both intended and unintended consequences of the growth in arrears under current child support enforcement policies. (author abstract).

The National Poverty Center released a working paper bibliography that summarizes research on the structure and effectiveness of workforce development programs. The paper covers evidence on the overall effectiveness of job training and other active labor market programs, several proposals to improve them, and the impact of the Great Recession on workforce development in the U.S. It also discusses the growing skills and earnings gaps between rich and poor Americans, and provides evidence on training and advancement programs.

The U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics released a report examining the basic skills of American adults by demographic and other socioeconomic factors including race, educational attainment, foreign status, and age. This critical information will allow for the design of smarter, more effective policy solutions that improve the skills of American adults and youth.

The Connecticut Employment & Training Commission released a report describing the most prominent State strategies for building and promoting career pathways. These strategies were pulled from a review of literature on career advancement strategies for low-skilled workers over the last decade.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research released the book, Getting Back to Full Employment, a follow-up to a book written in 2003 titled, The Benefits of Full Employment. This new book builds on the evidence presented in The Benefits of Full Employment, showing that real wage growth for workers in the bottom half of the income scale is highly dependent on the overall rate of unemployment. The book also presents a broad set of policies designed to boost growth and get the unemployment rate down to a level where far more workers have a fighting chance of getting ahead.

This brief from the Youth Transition Funders Group highlights challenges in current policy related to youth education and employment and offers recommendations for change. The brief is targeted at policymakers and philanthropic organizations interested in funding youth employment and education initiatives. It emphasizes philanthropic collaboration as a means to shape the scope of future initiatives.

The Federal Reserve Board released a paper investigating how high-speed home Internet has impacted married women's labor force participation. Results indicate that married women who use the Internet are more likely to participate in the labor force. The study found that increases in participation are concentrated on women with higher levels of education and children. The results suggest home Internet facilitates work-family balance for highly educated women.

The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) was authorized by Congress to reduce teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and associated risk behaviors. Grantees across the country had flexibility in how they would implement their programs. This report is the first report from the PREP evaluation sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation and conducted by Mathematica Policy Research. Authors interviewed State grantee officials to document the program decisions made across 44 States and Washington DC in designing the program. Among the key findings, researchers found that many of the programs are evidence-based and targeting high-risk youth. Additionally, States have developed their programs in different ways to educate on abstinence and contraception. The evaluation will include an additional round of interviews in 2014, performance management data analysis, and an analysis of program impacts using random assignment across four to five sites.

The Urban Institute held a roundtable with experts representing a diverse range of perspectives on U.S. workers. They were charged with informing a broad workforce policy agenda that would reflect the nation's changing economic and government landscape. The experts set out to address unemployment and explore innovative approaches to meeting employer demand for skilled workers. This report highlights workforce innovations and practices that attendees felt held the most promise and the most challenges for ensuring a more effective U.S. workforce system.

The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act) to help strengthen families by securing financial support for children from their noncustodial parent on a consistent and continuing basis and by helping some families to remain self-sufficient and off public assistance by providing the requisite CSE services. Over the years, CSE has evolved into a multifaceted program. While cost-recovery still remains an important function of the program, its other aspects include service delivery and promotion of self-sufficiency and parental responsibility. In FY2012, the CSE program collected $27.7 billion in child support payments and served nearly 15.7 million child support cases. However, the program still collects only 63% of current child support obligations for which it has responsibility and collects payments for only 59% of its caseload. (author abstract)