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Building America’s Job Skills with Effective Workforce Programs: A Training Strategy to Raise Wages and Increase Work Opportunities

November 2011 • Michael Greenstone, Adam Looney • Employment & Wages, Education, Global Economy, Economic Security, Poverty

Amid the Great Recession and rapid technological changes, both workers with less education and workers who have been displaced from long-tenured jobs face challenges because they lack the particular skills that employers demand for good-paying jobs. In a new Hamilton Project strategy paper, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney address the importance of developing workers’ skills through training and workforce development programs, and examine newly available evidence on policies that boost job opportunities and wages.

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Improving Student Outcomes: Restoring America’s Education Potential

September 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone, Paige Shevlin • Education

For decades, education has boosted U.S. productivity and earnings, forged a path out of poverty for many families, helped disadvantaged students narrow the learning gap with their peers, and developed a workforce that continues to be among the most productive and innovative on Earth.  However, in recent years educational attainment and performance have stagnated.  In a new strategy paper, The Hamilton Project provides a dual-track approach to improving educational outcomes for K-12 students by addressing structural barriers and implementing short-term cost-effective reforms to improve student performance.

Popular Papers

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NEW PAPER

Shrinking Job Opportunities: The Challenge of Putting Americans Back to Work

January 2012 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Employment & Wages

The Hamilton Project compares trends in unemployment duration before and after the Great Recession and finds that the probability of finding new employment is considerably lower today than it was before the recession.

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NEW PAPER

The Hamilton Project Policy Response to the State of the Union Address

January 2012 • Education, Economic Security, Employment & Wages, Energy & Environment, Infrastructure, Tax Policy, Technology & Innovation

Last night, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address, putting forth his policy agenda to the 112th Congress on issues. Since its launch in 2006, The Hamilton Project has developed targeted policy proposals that touch on many of these areas, which we offer as a resource to policymakers in response to specific ideas mentioned by the President last evening. 

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What Is Happening to America’s Children? A Look At The Widening Opportunity Gap for Today’s Youth

October 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Employment & Wages

Resources available to children can have long-term effects on their quality of life. The Project examines the family earnings devoted to the typical American child and finds that half of children are now worse off than their counterparts 35 years ago.

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Unemployment and Earnings Losses: The Long-Term Impacts of The Great Recession on American Workers

November 2011 • Adam Looney, Michael Greenstone • Employment & Wages

The Hamilton Project explores the experiences of workers who lost their jobs during the height of the Great Recession and finds that even those workers who have found new employment often earn significantly less than before. 

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Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments

September 2011 • Brian A. Jacob, Jonah E. Rockoff • Education

While education reform is often focused on dramatic changes, Brian A. Jacob and Jonah E. Rockoff suggest that implementing managerial reforms and making sure the “trains run on time” can substantially increase student learning at modest cost. Jacob and Rockoff propose three organizational reforms to improve student performance at moderate cost: 1) Starting school later in the day for middle and high school students; 2) Shifting from separate to elementary and middle schools to K-8; 3) allow teachers to teach the same grade level for multiple years or having teachers specializing in the subject where they appear most effective.

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