In 2000, approximately 59 million people aged 55 and over resided in the United States. The proportion of people aged 55 and over living in each state ranged from about 13 percent in Alaska to about 27 percent living in Florida (see fig.1). In program year 2000, older workers received employment and training services from various federal employment and training programs, including the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programs. These programs have various eligibility requirements and offer employment and training services through different mechanisms. Title V of the Older Americans Act of 1965 authorizes SCSEP to promote part-time community service activities specifically for low-income older individuals and to foster economic self-sufficiency through unsubsidized employment. SCSEP, funded at $440.2 million in program year 2001, is limited to people 55 years and older with incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level. For program year 2000, Labor allotted 78 percent of the funds to 10 national grantees, including the AARP Foundation, Experience Works (formerly Green Thumb), and the National Council on the Aging, Inc. (See appendix II for a complete list of national grantees and funds expended in program year 2000.) The remaining 22 percent was allotted to each of the 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the other territories. At least 75 percent of SCSEP funds must be used to subsidize participants’ wages—typically for minimum wage jobs in nonprofit and public sector agencies. The remaining funds may be used for such activities as assessments, counseling, training, and job placement assistance. Section 502(e) of title V authorizes limited funds to be used for projects placing older workers in unsubsidized employment in the private sector. (See appendix III for more details on how these funds were used in program year 2000.) These projects are intended to emphasize training for jobs that reflect required technological skills. TAA programs assist U.S. workers who lose their jobs because of increased imports from, or shifts in production to, foreign countries. These programs provide benefits such as trade re-adjustment allowances (extended income support beyond normal unemployment insurance benefits), services such as job training, and funds for job search and relocation. Groups of workers or their representatives can petition the Department of Labor for certification of eligibility to apply for services or benefits under TAA programs. In fiscal year 2001, TAA programs received about $407 million to provide income support and training benefits. WIA specifies one funding source for each of the act’s main client groups—adults, dislocated workers, and youths—and creates a system whereby clients can obtain information about and access to a wide array of job training, education, and employment services at a single location, called a one-stop center. WIA specifies 17 partner programs that are to provide services through the one-stop center, including SCSEP and TAA. This partnership can take different forms, including physical colocation at the one-stop center or providing electronic linkages to the partners’ programs. WIA requires that the adult and dislocated worker programs, funded at about $2.5 billion in program year 2001, provide three levels of service: (1) core job search assistance, including the provision of labor market information, and a preliminary assessment of skills and needs; (2) intensive job search assistance, including comprehensive assessments, creation of an individual employment plan, case management, and short- term prevocational services; and (3) training, including skill upgrading, literacy classes, and occupational training. Core services are available to all job seekers, but WIA enrollment is required for intensive services and training. Under the adult program, all persons aged 18 or older are eligible to receive core services. In areas where funds are limited, priority for intensive services and training must be given to recipients of public assistance and other low-income individuals. The dislocated worker program is generally for those individuals who have been laid off and are unlikely to return to their previous employment. To be eligible for the youth program, persons must be aged 14—21; have low income; and meet at least one of six barriers to employment, such as being a school dropout, homeless, or an offender. When WIA replaced the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) in July 2000, it replaced the requirement that each state reserve five percent of its adult allotment specifically for older worker services with the provision that states can set aside up to 15 percent of their adult, youth, and dislocated worker allotments to support statewide workforce activities. WIA also contains a requirement that each state and local area receiving WIA funds must achieve certain levels of performance on several measures. The Department of Labor evaluates performance on these measures to determine fiscal incentives and sanctions. Some measures are common to both the adult and dislocated worker programs, such as job placement and retention, but earnings are measured differently for the two programs. For the adult program, the measure compares participants’ earnings before entering the program to their earnings after completing the program and expresses the difference as an actual dollar amount. For the dislocated worker program, participants’ earnings after completing the program are expressed as a percentage of their earnings before entering the program. In a previous GAO report on WIA performance measures, we found that established performance measures were a concern to state and local officials because of the fiscal sanctions associated with failure to meet them. We reported that the need to meet performance measures might be the driving factor in deciding who receives WIA-funded services at the local level. For example, local staff might be reluctant to provide WIA- funded services to job seekers who may be less likely to get and keep a job or those who may be less likely to experience an increase in earnings. Approximately 12 percent of all older people who were not working and wanted a job were enrolled in federal employment and training programs; most of these individuals received subsidized community service jobs or job search assistance, while a smaller number received training. The majority of these older individuals, about 68 percent, were enrolled in SCSEP. Other older workers may receive job assistance services without being enrolled in a federal employment and training program, but these individuals are not counted in program statistics. We found that approximately 156,000 people aged 55 and older were enrolled in SCSEP, TAA, and WIA adult and dislocated worker programs between July 2000 and June 2001—representing about 12 percent of all the people in this age group who wanted a job but were not working. According to the Current Population Survey, an average of 1.3 million people aged 55 to 90 years old were unemployed or were out of the labor force and wanted a job during this same time period. Many of these individuals consider themselves to be retired but wish to rejoin the labor market. Some of these individuals are actively looking for work; others have tried to find work in the past and have become discouraged from continuing their job search. In terms of the 59 million people who were age 55 and older in 2000, less than 1 percent was enrolled in SCSEP, WIA, and TAA. The total number of older people enrolled in these federal employment and training programs is smaller than the number of people aged 55 and older who may have actually received services. Although federal employment and training programs count the number of people enrolled in in-depth services, individuals who receive more limited or informal employment assistance are not included in program statistics. Within the WIA programs, for example, individuals can access self-service employment resources, such as job listings, through entry-level core services without enrolling in WIA. Similarly, within SCSEP, some older people receive job search assistance from staff without being enrolled as clients in the program. In Pennsylvania, for example, some SCSEP providers maintain a job bank for older individuals who need help finding a job but do not meet the income eligibility requirements for the program. Of the 156,000 older people enrolled in the three federal employment and training programs, more than two-thirds received SCSEP services. Our surveys also show that more people aged 55 and over were enrolled in WIA programs than in TAA programs (see fig. 2). Although SCSEP only enrolls people aged 55 and over, the WIA and TAA programs serve both older and younger individuals. We found that older people make up a relatively small proportion of the total number of people enrolled in WIA and TAA programs (see fig. 3). Our surveys show that both the WIA dislocated worker and adult programs enrolled more older people than the TAA programs. To the extent that it could be determined, the three federally funded employment and training programs that we reviewed reach a small proportion of those likely to be eligible. Although different eligibility requirements and limited data make it difficult to determine the number of older people who qualify for the three federal employment and training programs we reviewed, some information is available on the number of older people enrolled in individual programs. For example, SCSEP enrolled about 1 percent of adults aged 55 and older whose incomes would make them eligible for services. Within WIA, the adult program enrolled less than 1 percent of all people aged 55 and older who would have been eligible on the basis of age. The percentage of eligible older people enrolled in the WIA dislocated worker program and the TAA programs is unknown, because national labor statistics do not track the population of older people who qualify for these services. Nevertheless, information on older people who have experienced mass layoffs shed some light on this population. For example, the number of older people enrolled in the WIA dislocated worker program represented about 14 percent of older people who had experienced extended mass layoffs. Likewise, the number of older people enrolled in the TAA programs constituted about four percent of people aged 55 or older experiencing extended mass layoffs.