Labor Exchange

The Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 established a national system of public labor exchange offices known as the U.S. Employment Service (ES).

Today the ES is central to all of the nearly 3,000 American Job Centers across the country.  The ES provides a range of services to job seekers and employers, including but not limited to job search assistance, job interview referrals, and recruitment services for employers seeking to fill vacancies. During the recent recession, the federal stimulus package formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included policy changes to ES programs.

Upjohn research has examined ES effectiveness for both workers and employers—before, during, and after ARRA. We seek to understand which services best support which types of workers, to measure the return on investment from publicly funded job training, and to assess how policy changes affect ES program outcomes.