Do youth employment programs improve labor market outcomes? A quantitative review

Abstract

Bringing young people into productive work is a key labor market challenge in both developing and developed economies, and a multitude of labor market interventions have been implemented to assist vulnerable youths. To assess whether these interventions have succeeded in improving young people's labor market outcomes, this study systematically and quantitatively reviews 113 impact evaluations of youth employment programs worldwide. Of a total of 3,105 effect estimates we extract from these studies, one-third are positive significant. The unconditional average effect size across all programs is small, both for employment-related outcomes (Hedges' g = 0.05, SE = 0.02) and earningsrelated outcomes (Hedges' g = 0.04, SE = 0.02). We analyze correlates of success in a meta-regression framework. We find that (i) programs are more successful in middle-and low-income countries; (ii) the intervention type is less important than design and delivery;(iii) programs integrating multiple services are more successful; (iv) profiling of beneficiaries, individualized follow-up systems and incentives for services providers matter; and (vii) impacts are of larger magnitude in the long-term. Some of these findings provide new and important insights about the design and delivery of interventions, whereas others confirm those of previous reviews. Ultimately, our findings provide practitioners with an improved evidence base about how certain design features contribute to successful youth employment programs in different contexts.

Interventions to improve the labour market outcomes of youth: A systematic review of training, entrepreneurship promotion, employment services and subsidized employment interventions

“…As shown Kluve et al (2016), incentives and profiling measures were correlated with better employment and earnings outcomes. The Adolescent Girls Employment Initiative (AGEI) of the Employment Fund in Nepal provided technical and life skills training with a comprehensive incentive scheme.…”

“…However, as it was possible that the analysis could have been confounded with other intervention‐ or study‐level characteristics that were correlated with programme scale (e.g., country income level), this difference was explored in more detail as part of the multivariate meta‐analysis depicted in Kluve et al (2016).…”

“…The summary SMD of studies of public sector only implemented programmes (i.e., government and/or multilateral agency as implementers) was statistically insignificant for both employment and earnings outcomes. However, as it was possible that the analysis could have been confounded with other intervention-or study-level characteristics that were correlated with programme scale (e.g., country income level), this difference was explored in more detail as part of the multivariate meta-analysis depicted in Kluve et al (2016). Note: Imputation: full, SMD limit = .75, SMD S.E.…”

High Stakes, Low Resources: What Mode(s) Should Youth Employment Training Programs Use to Track Alumni? Evidence From South Africa

“…Yet, a recent systematic review of 113 impact evaluations that considered employability and/or earnings of target populations found that only 30 per cent of employment training programmes are successful, typically with small effect (Kluve et al ., ). A significant proportion of the ‘non‐successful’ programmes were underpowered and inconclusive.…”

“…Like Kluve et al . (), the World Bank () calls for better data on outcomes, to hold ‘providers accountable for results’, among other uses.…”