**GAO-11-157**                      Published: Mar 16, 2011. Publicly Released: Mar 16, 2011.                  

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## Highlights

The Department of Labor (Labor) plays a vital role in promoting the welfare of American workers through administering and enforcing more than 180 federal laws that cover some 10 million employers and 125 million workers. Since the recent economic downturn, Labor's role has become even more critical as its programs provide additional employment and training supports. As such, GAO was asked to determine how well Labor is currently adhering to best management practices departmentwide to ensure that its programs are operating effectively. Specifically, this report assesses Labor's (1) strategic workforce management, (2) management controls to manage and modernize its information technology, and (3) accountability over its discretionary grants. To do this, GAO collected and reviewed Labor documents related to workforce and information technology planning, as well as grants management information, and conducted interviews with Labor's national and regional staff.

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## Topics

Human Capital

AccountabilityBest practicesDiscretionary grantsDocumentationEmployeesFinancial managementGrant administrationGrant monitoringHuman capital managementHuman capital planningInformation technologyInternal controlsIT investment managementLabor forcePerformance measuresStaff utilizationStrategic planningTechnology modernization programsPolicies and procedures