Fairness in Employment Testing Validity Generalization, Minority Issues, and the General Aptitude Test Battery (1989) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 The Public Employment Service
3 The Public Employment Service
Pages 52-72
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 52... ...
Whatever the theoretical attractions of scientific selection, job seekers and employers tend to use informal methods more heavily than formal job-matching systems such as the Employment Service system, private employment agencies, or school placement offices. Table 3-1 summarizes a Department of Labor survey of the methods used by employers to recruit new staff.
|
From page 53... ...
Other methods are more specifically tailored to particular types of jobs: for example, firms seeking professional and technical employees are likely to seek job candidates at colleges, universities, high schools, and trade and technical schools; however, walk-in applicants may well provide many employers with an ample supply of office workers and production/service employees. Through the Public Employment Service, government plays an active, though supplementary, matchmaking role in certain segments of the labor market.
|
From page 54... ...
TABLE 3-3 Percentage of Job Orders by Occupational Category for One State Employment Service Occupational Category Percentage Professional, technical, and managerial Secretarial and clerical Sales Domestic Service Agricultural Processing Machine trades Bench work Structural work Miscellaneous occupations 4 14 4 16 9 8 11 13 17
|
From page 55... ...
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICE Beginnings New York City established the first effective public employment office in 1834, which was followed in subsequent years by the establishment of municipal employment offices in other large cities. Late in the nineteenth century, the states of Ohio, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts passed laws providing for a state employment service, operating offices in major cities in those states.
|
From page 56... ...
This employer tax also supports the job referral activities of the Employment Service. Together with the Wagner-Peyser Act, FUTA defined the broad outlines of the federal-state partnership in the State Employment Security System.
|
From page 57... ...
State-level employer committees were established to help local Job Service offices respond more effectively to the needs of employers and job seekers. The number of these committees, now known as Job Service Employers Committees, has grown to 1,100 nationwide, involving some 30,000 employers at local, state, and national levels.
|
From page 58... ...
and supporting legislation mandate that eligible veterans be given preference in all employment services provided by the Job Service. The Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 provides for employment training for the economically disadvantaged and dislocated workers who become unemployed due to plant closing and mass layoffs.
|
From page 59... ...
Employment Service Program Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933, as amended Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 Social Security Act of 1935 Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) Emergency Unemployment Insurance Compensation Act Federal Supplemental Compensation Act Special Unemployment Assistance Program Trade Readjustment Act Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended Fair Labor Standards Act 38 U.S.C., Chapters 41, 42, 43 Veterans Employment, Training and Counseling Act of 1987 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 Revenue Act of 1978 Tax Reform Act of 1986 Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act of 1963 Fair Labor Standards Act Occupational Safety and Health Standards Act Migrant Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act of 1983 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Older Americans Act Food Stamp Act of 1977 Employment Service (labor exchange)
|
From page 60... ...
Although there is great variety in plans and procedures from state to state, and indeed from local office to local office, the basic function of the Employment Service system is to take job orders from employers, to take applications from job seekers, and to make referrals of applicants to employers. The Employment Service views itself in this role as an honest broker, providing employers with access to a larger pool of potential employees than might otherwise be available to them and providing job seekers access to information about many job openings at a single location.
|
From page 61... ...
Some states operate two autonomous programs housed in separate local offices; other states combine management and location of the programs. Whatever the specific structure, statute and regulations mandate that services be coordinated and state work test requirements be met by the Employment Service.
|
From page 62... ...
The degree to which states have automated is variable, and there is no standardization in this endeavor, although USES has approved software packages geared to networking local offices and states together for the exchange of employment placement opportunities. Local Offices The 1,800 local Employment Service offices vary in size from one- or two-person operations to offices with dozens of employees.
|
From page 63... ...
Employers send or phone in job orders to a local office of their state Employment Service, specifying the type of jobs they need to fill; any special requirements for the job, such as educational credentials, work experience, or test results; and, if they choose, the number of applicants they would like the Employment Service to refer for each position. Each job order is assigned an occupational code drawn from the Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational Titles, which classifies jobs according to a scheme of broadly defined performance requirements.
|
From page 64... ...
Employment opportunities for veterans are enhanced through the Federal Contractor Job Listing Program, the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit, and the Veterans' Job Training Act. The local office may also provide specialized services for youths, people with handicaps, minorities, women, older workers, released prisoners or parolees, and others who may be disadvantaged in the job market.
|
From page 65... ...
The office may also recruit and select qualified job seekers for referral to openings in other areas when local offices in those areas are not able to fill the openings from the local labor supply. A major activity of Employment Service offices is to provide occupational and labor-market information and data for myriad purposes: for unemployed workers for their job search purposes; for employers in planning recruitment, in considering a plant location, and in marketing plans; for employment and school counselors in assisting applicants in need of counseling and career guidance; for school administrators to assist in curriculum planning and for vocational schools in determining occupations with reasonable prospects of employment; for administrators in human resource program planning; for classification of service delivery areas according to level of unemployment; for economic development planning by regional commissions and other planning bodies; for development of affirmative action plans; and for Employment Service planning to help reduce the impact of mass layoffs.
|
From page 66... ...
OPERATIONS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL Local Employment Service offices across the nation are as diverse as the communities they serve. The previous section listed services that may be available through local offices.
|
From page 67... ...
Conversely, if relatively few applicants are tested, then the local office uses programs other than testing to promote the Employment Service. Job Service Employers Committees, developed over the past 16 years, assist by advising local offices on how they can better serve the community, as well as by promoting use of the system to other employers.
|
From page 68... ...
Profile Two: A VG-GATB Office Local office two has geared its entire operations around the administration of the GATB. This is referred to as the "full-blown" approach to testing.
|
From page 69... ...
The VG-GATB program was adopted statewide as the primary screening and selection tool to be used by local offices, but this local office requested to discontinue the full-blown approach due to the strain on staff time. The local office manager felt that it was not a significant tool, considering the labor-market and labor-force makeup of his service delivery area.
|
From page 71... ...
Chapter 5 discusses in detail several shortcomings of the GATE that need immediate attention if the test is to become the centerpiece of the Employment Service system: problems with test administration, the highly speeded nature of the test and its consequent vulnerability to coaching, and the paucity of available test forms and the test's consequent vulnerability to compromise.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.