RCT evidence on differential impact of US job training programmes by pre-training employment status

While the recent evidence around the effectiveness of job training programmes has been generally positive, there has been little evidence regarding the differential impact in the U.S. by pre-training employment status. The city of New Orleans implemented a job training programme funded by the U.S. Department of labour Workforce Innovation Fund. They screened potential trainees for suitability and likelihood of completing and benefiting from training. They selected and developed curriculum with input from local firms. The city implemented the training as a randomized controlled trial. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of the training on employment, earnings, and industry of employment, both overall and separately by baseline employment status. We find overall positive effects for earnings, driven by those who did not have a job at the time of training enrolment. We also find positive employment effects for short-term unemployed workers. Individuals in the treatment group were more likely to work in the target industries, suggesting that the gains were happening through the gains in industry-specific human capital.