Using evidence-based strategies to develop workforce training that improves worker employability and addresses local labor market needs is key for identifying and supporting impactful interventions that seek to improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities. Actus is currently evaluating two innovative workforce training programs implemented in Philadelphia  – the Bright Solar Futures program (funded by the Philadelphia Energy Authority) and the PowerCorpsPHL training program (funded by EducationWorks). These programs engage formally incarcerated and at-risk youth in training and career counseling services focused on Philadelphia's workforce development priorities in the green jobs sector.

State UI systems aim to provide unemployed workers with partial replacement of their lost earnings while actively searching for new employment. To achieve this objective, state workforce agencies often require UI claimants to participate in job-search assistance interventions to ensure they actively search for work while collecting benefits and to provide them with services that would help them connect to suitable employment. ​ In 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) offered grants to state workforce agencies to implement the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) program, requiring that UI claimants undergo an eligibility review to confirm compliance with UI work search requirements. Since the inception of the REA program, Actus experts have been at the forefront of conducting randomized controlled trial (RCT), implementation, and outcomes studies of state REA programs. Our early work established the positive impacts of REA during the Great Recession and found that offering job counseling in addition to the eligibility review may lead to even higher impacts. ​ Partly due to our researchers' work, in 2015, DOL instructed states to modify their existing programs, to require participants to undergo both an eligibility review and receive job counseling services. To emphasize this shift, REA was renamed to RESEA. In 2018, RESEA programs gained permanent funding through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 under the condition that states would produce credible evidence on the effectiveness of their programs by FY2024.

Building a skilled workforce that meets the needs of employers is a key objective for state workforce agencies. When it comes to workforce programming, knowing what works and what doesn't is critical for sound decision-making.  Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Colorado invested $60 million to fund a wide range of grantee training and career counseling programs and other workforce initiatives that would help prepare Coloradans impacted by COVID-19 for well-paying, quality jobs. Assessing the impact of the programs funded by this initiative became an important objective. Actus is working with the Colorado Workforce Development Council to develop and implement a comprehensive framework for evaluating the impacts of this stimulus funding in six program areas. ​