Editing Job Corps (section)

===Mathematica===

From 1993 to 2008, [[Princeton University]] affiliate research organization [[Mathematica_Inc.|Mathematica]] produced a series of evaluations and reports on the Job Corps for the agency's parent, the U.S. Department of Labor, and for independent academic journals.<ref name="mathematica_studies">[https://www.mathematica.org/projects/evaluation-of-the-job-corps-program ''Evaluation of the Job Corps Program, 1993-2006''], [[Mathematica]], retrieved June 6, 2024</ref> Their long-term study involved repeated nationwide surveys of over 6,800 Job Corps participants, and a "control group" of over 4,400 comparable non-participants, over a four-year period -- and, in some reports, used the government-held, employer-reported tax records of individual workers for analysis of the survey subjects' economic outcomes.<ref name="mathematica_studies" /><ref name="mathematica_2008_review">Peter Z. Schochet, John Burghardt, and Sheena McConnell ([[Mathematica]]): [https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aer.98.5.1864 ''Does Job Corps Work? Impact Findings from the National Job Corps Study,''], Dec 30, 2008, ''[[American Economic Review]],'' vol. 8, no.5;  also [https://www.mathematica.org/projects/evaluation-of-the-job-corps-program  republished by Mathematica], retrieved June 6, 2024</ref><ref name="failure_2009_05_05_heritage_org" />

Their researchers ultimately concluded that "the Job Corps model" shows "promise" -- adding that the program's effect on participating youth "increases [their] educational attainment, reduces [their] criminal activity, and increases [their] earnings for several postprogram years." However, they noted that "tax data" indicated that -- except for "the oldest participants" (young adults in their early 20s) --  most participants' "earnings gains were not sustained" beyond four years after leaving the program.<ref name="mathematica_2008_review" /><ref name="cost_2014_05_19_wapo" />

That said, Mathematica concluded that the Job Corps is "the only federal training program... shown to increase earnings for this [disadvantaged youth] population."<ref name="mathematica_2008_review" /><ref name="cost_2014_05_19_wapo" />

However, the cost of the program, they concluded, exceeds the overall positive economic impact on society (from slightly improved social outcomes, like reduced crime and reduced welfare expenditures).<ref name="mathematica_2008_review" /><ref name="cost_2014_05_19_wapo" /> One of the study's leaders, Mathematica senior fellow Peter Schochet, asserted that the program is "a good deal for... enrollees themselves," but acknowledged that -- "from society's perspective" -- "the [Job Corps] program... does not pay for itself."<ref name="cost_2014_05_19_wapo" />