Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

With a growing need for a more skilled workforce, providing effective and efficient employment and training services is an important national priority. We provide an overview of two of the largest initiatives seeking to provide these services in the United States: the Adult and Dislocated Worker programs. The programs provide similar services—including information on job search and high-demand occupations, assistance from employment counselors, and funding for training—and differ mainly in whether they focus on low-income individuals or workers who have become unemployed due to local economic conditions. We describe the programs as they operated under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 and how they evolved when the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) superseded WIA in 2015.