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   overnment attempts to increase the
earnings of the least skilled through training has a long and undistinguished history.
While few rigorous evaluations of the current Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program have been completed,
analysis of the government's two previous attempts at job training do not speak well of government efforts in this arena.
Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA): The JTPA is one of the most studied and least successful job training programs in history. The national JTPA study revealed that classroom training for adult men and women failed to raise incomes for either group. Other programs, including on-the-job training, had a moderate yet fleeting effect on female income and no increase on male incomes. Furthermore, the JTPA did not change the hourly wages of participants—a key labor market indicator of increased skill level. Job Corps: The National Job Corps, created in 1964, provides job training to youths aged 16-24. Only limited gains in earnings were ever seen from the program, with the weekly change in earnings never exceeding $25. Research out of Miami University of Ohio and Florida State University found that the median full-time minimum wage earner experienced wage growth of $28 based on their work effort alone. The best training for a job is clearly having a job. Programs such as the recently proposed transitional jobs initiative (TJI) that subsidize actual employment in real jobs allow low-skill employees to overcome that gap between skills and wages. This opens the door for future wage growth and self-sufficiency. |
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