Returns To Education and Training for the Highly Disadvantaged

The author presents an evaluation of a job-training demonstration program that targeted highly disadvantaged individuals residing in a high unemployment community for delivery of custom ized job-training and intensive case-management and supportive services. She found that geographical targeting aided the effort to recruit and cost-effectively serve the highly disadvan taged. Despite their disadvantages, demonstration program participants achieved significantly higher wages and eamings at termination than did comparison group members, and the program produced a statistically significant earnings impact for participants over a 2-year period. Participants who received on-the-job training experienced the largest earnings gains, although on average, the program's effects diminished over time. The author recommends extending the provision of intensive case-management and supportive services into the postplacement period to increase employment retention.