All members of the comparison and intervention groups were youth who applied to Job Corps for the first time from November 1994 to December 1995 and were deemed eligible for Job Corps by February 1996. Individuals assigned to the comparison group were not allowed to enroll in Job Corps for three years but were free to enroll in any other education and training programs.
The Job Corps program cost per participant was $14,898, in 1995 dollars; this figure was derived from the costs incurred by the residential and nonresidential study sample participants. The study authors defined the benefits of the program in three broad categories: increased economic output (employment and earnings), reduced use of other programs and services, and reduced criminal activity by and against Job Corps participants. Overall, the study found that during the 20-year observation period, program costs were greater than program benefits for all participants in the Job Corps study. However, the study found that the program was cost-effective for older participants (ages 20 to 24).
This study evaluated Job Corps from November 1994 through February 1996 and continued to measure outcomes among study participants for 20 years after the initial evaluation period. As of 2020, Job Corps Centers continue to offer similar services to eligible participants.
Job Corps consisted of multiple overlapping features that formed a comprehensive and intensive program. These features included the following:
- The core residential living component. Though some participants received services while living at home, most Job Corps participants lived full time at Job Corps Centers where they received the education, training, and health care components. The residential component also included community meals, entertainment, sports and recreation, communal governance and maintenance, and residential counseling that assisted with soft-skills training and transition to life after Job Corps.A basic education component that was tailored to each participant’s academic and personal needs, which included GED preparation; family health and relationships; remedial English and math; and consumer, driver, and personal health courses.
- An occupational training component offered by national labor and business organizations that offered training in several different vocations (typically business and clerical, construction, culinary arts, and building and apartment maintenance). Similar to the basic education component, the training component was individualized and paced according to each participant’s needs.
- A health services component that provided medical examinations; testing and treatment for drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancies; immunizations; dental care; mental health services; and instruction focused on personal hygiene, preventative medicine, and self-care.
- A final job placement component, which was conducted by contracted job placement agencies that assisted participants with job development, job interview preparation, and resume writing. Each participant received a stipend called the “readjustment allowance” for completing the program.
The study did not discuss any tools to measure fidelity to the intervention.
Job Corps is been funded by congressional appropriations to DOL, which oversees the program and the contractors providing program services.
Job Corps was implemented at 105 residential Job Corps Centers across 9 regions within the contiguous United States and the District of Columbia. Job Corps Centers were unevenly distributed across the states within the regions; therefore, the local context for each location varied greatly, with some states having only one center that served an entire state and some states having none at all. All Job Corps training, education, health, and job placement services were provided in these residential settings, though some participants continued to live at home while receiving services.
During the study period, Job Corps was implemented by public and private service providers under contract with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) through agreements with 9 DOL regional offices. They reached out to and screened applicants, provided program services at the 105 Job Corps Centers, or provided job placement services. These organizations included, but were not limited to, private nonprofits, for-profit service providers and employment agencies, and state employment agencies.
In addition to private contractors that ran Job Corps on behalf of DOL, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and the Interior operate 30 Job Corps Centers (Civilian Conservation Centers) under an interagency agreement with DOL. Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers trained youth that meet Job Corps eligibility requirements on educational, social, and vocational skills, while helping conserve the nation’s public natural resources. Members of the Job Corps evaluation’s comparison group could not receive services from the Civilian Conservation Centers.
Job Corps participants were volunteers who met the following criteria:
- Were ages 16 to 24 (the average age of all participants was 19).
- Were from disadvantaged backgrounds (defined as living in a household that received public cash assistance or its equivalent) or had incomes below the poverty level.
- Lived in a debilitating environment (not defined specifically by the authors).
- Were in need of education and training.
Among all study participants, 59 percent were male, and 77 percent lacked a high school diploma or equivalent. Overall, nearly 75 percent of participants were from a racial or ethnic minority group, with 50 percent identifying as Black or African American, not Hispanic; 18 percent as Hispanic or Latino of any race; 4 percent as American Indian or Alaska Native; and 2 percent as Asian or Other Pacific Islander.
Job Corps was open entry and open exit, meaning the length of participation varied for each participant. Because of the size and reach of Job Corps, different Job Corps Centers varied in how they conducted their programs, which the study did not detail at length. The average period of participation, however, was 8 months, with 28 percent of enrollees participating for fewer than 3 months and nearly a quarter of participants participating for more than a year.
Generally, Job Corps staff consisted of a team of outreach and admissions counselors that recruited, screened, and assigned eligible youth to each Job Corps Center. Job Corps Center staff ran each center as well as the educational and residential life program components. Instructors from national labor and business organizations conducted the vocational training component. Finally, job placement specialists from contracted organizations conducted the post-program job placement component. The study authors did not include information on the number of staff or their training, degrees, or certifications.