Labor and VA oversee six employment and training programs targeted to veterans (see table 1). Labor administers its programs through state workforce agencies in each state. Within Labor, VETS administers five employment programs targeted to veterans. VETS provides grants to states to support state workforce agency staff who serve veterans through the Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program, Employment Representative Program, and TAP. Through the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program and VWIP, VETS also provides funding to organizations that serve eligible veterans, including nonprofits. Labor oversees these programs through federal officials stationed in each region, as well as a Director of Veterans’ Employment and Training located in each state. Within VA, the Vocational Rehabilitation Program provides employment services to certain veterans with disabilities. VA offers the program in 56 regional offices and 169 satellite offices. The program has about 1,000 staff, including vocational rehabilitation counselors, employment coordinators, support staff, and managers. Rehabilitation counselors determine entitlement to services. In addition to its programs administered by VETS, Labor offers employment and training services to the general population—including veterans. These services are administered by the Employment and Training Administration (ETA). First, ETA administers the ES Program, which provides a national system of public employment services to all individuals seeking employment. ES provides services such as job search, labor market information, and job referrals to the public, including job seekers and employers. ETA carries out its ES Program through state workforce agencies. ETA also administers the WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker programs, which provide a broad range of services including job search assistance, skill assessment, and training for eligible individuals. When funds are limited, the WIA Adult Program is to give priority for intensive and training services to low income adults or those on public assistance. In program year 2010, 94,629 veterans exited from the WIA Adult Program. WIA’s Dislocated Worker Program generally targets adults who have been terminated or laid off from employment and meet other criteria. In program year 2010, 58,350 veterans exited from the WIA Dislocated Worker Program. Federal law requires VETS, ES, and WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker programs to offer their services through the one-stop system—which includes centers through which job seekers can access a range of employment and training programs. Two of VETS’ programs—Disabled Veterans’ Outreach and Employment Representative programs—have about 2,100 staff who work primarily in local one-stop centers. Federal law also requires other Labor-funded programs—including ES and WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker programs—to give veterans priority over the general population when they seek services (referred to as priority of service). VETS and ETA jointly monitor compliance with this requirement. Most ETA and VETS programs report the same performance measures, known as the common measures. They include percentage of program exiters who have obtained employment (entered employment rate), percentage retaining employment for 6 months after exiting the program (employment retention rate), and 6-month average earnings of program exiters (average earnings). For each of these, Labor establishes annual performance goals. VA reports an employment rehabilitation rate as a measure of performance for the Vocational Rehabilitation Program. A “rehabilitated” veteran is one who successfully completes a rehabilitation plan and is equipped with the required skills and tools needed to obtain and maintain suitable employment (i.e., employment that is consistent with the veteran’s skills, aptitudes, and interests). DOD works with Labor and VA to provide transition assistance workshops as a part of TAP. In addition, DOD helps Guard and Reserve members obtain civilian employment though its operation of several programs, including the Yellow Ribbon Program and ESGR. The Yellow Ribbon Program serves National Guard and Reserve members and their families by hosting events that provide information on employment opportunities, health care, education/training opportunities, finances, and legal benefits. The ESGR is a nationwide network of volunteers who address unemployment and underemployment of Guard and Reserve members through participation in employment-related events. As shown in figure 1, the six federal employment and training programs targeted to veterans offer similar types of employment and training services. assessment, job search or job placement activities, and job readiness skills training. Other services available from more than one of these programs include the development of job opportunities, job referrals, and occupational and vocational training, among others. Labor and VA have established a framework to coordinate their employment and training programs. In 2005, Labor and VA signed an interagency memorandum of agreement that outlines how the agencies plan to coordinate the Vocational Rehabilitation and Disabled Veterans’ Outreach and Employment Representative programs to serve disabled veterans, respectively. The agencies have also collaboratively created an interagency handbook that delineates roles and responsibilities and establishes a referral process between the Disabled Veterans’ Outreach and the Vocational Rehabilitation programs. To assist field staff, the interagency handbook also provides standard language and guidance for agreements between local Labor and VA offices. As a result, local offices from both agencies can tailor the standard agreement language to meet local situations. The handbook has not been updated since 2008. Labor and VA have provided staff with training on the handbook and formed a group to monitor coordination. Labor and VA conducted a national training webinar based on the interagency handbook for both agencies’ staff after it was published, have made virtual trainings available since 2009, and provided technical assistance to staff. To monitor the coordination activities outlined in the interagency handbook, Labor and VA created a Joint Work Group. According to Labor and VA officials, this group recently discussed and agreed on a plan to review one-third of local agreements made between Labor and VA field locations annually. Labor and VA have collected information that could be useful in updating the handbook. The Joint Work Group recently conducted its first in-depth review of states’ implementation of the handbook since it was established in 2008. According to Labor and VA officials, the Joint Work Group electronically surveyed the VA employment coordinators in all 56 VA Regional Offices and the 52 state-level directors of the Disabled While Veterans’ Outreach and Employment Representative programs. VA officials stated that they are currently reviewing the survey results to determine if the handbook needs to be updated, Labor officials told us told us they believe the handbook needs to be updated. We have reported previously that agencies need to create means to monitor agreements and related guidance periodically to keep them current and to identify areas for improvement. Our interviews with Labor and VA officials identified certain challenges with meeting desired program outcomes resulting, in part, from sections of the handbook that are subject to misunderstanding or provide insufficient guidance. They pertain to incorporating labor market information into rehabilitation plans and finding “suitable employment” for participants. The first challenge with referrals as outlined in the handbook involved ensuring that participants’ rehabilitation plans prepared them for jobs that existed in their local area. According to the referral process outlined in the interagency handbook and by agency officials (see fig. 3), there are two main referral points from the Vocational Rehabilitation Program to Labor’s Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program staff: (1) before the participant’s rehabilitation plan is completed and (2) after the participant has completed a rehabilitation plan and been deemed job-ready, or ready for employment, by VA staff. Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program staff may provide participants with labor market information or other employment assistance at the first referral point and are required to at the second referral point. While VA officials in four of the six states we reviewed reported that they connected participants with Labor staff to receive labor market information and other employment consulting, only three of these states reported that they did this early in the process before the rehabilitation plan is completed. In two other states, VA officials reported they understood that they were supposed to refer participants to Labor only after they had completed rehabilitation plans and were job-ready, essentially skipping the first step where labor market information may have been useful. VA officials reported that labor market information may be provided to participants through small group presentations with Disabled Veterans’ Outreach staff. For their part, state-level Labor officials noted that job placement was more challenging for Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program staff when participants’ rehabilitation plans were developed without labor market information. In such cases, according to Labor officials, Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program staff were sometimes working with plans focused on training in occupations not available in the local labor market—in effect using programs’ funds to prepare participants for jobs that do not exist in their local area. According to Labor officials, this made it more difficult for participants to have successful employment outcomes. The second challenge with referrals as outlined in the handbook involved ensuring that job-ready participants are directed to “suitable employment.” When veterans are referred to the Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program at the job-ready stage, Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program and VA staff are supposed to coordinate to find “suitable employment,” or employment that will not aggravate the participant’s disability and follows the participant’s rehabilitation plan. State-level Labor officials noted that, in some cases, veterans may choose to accept jobs they want or need but that do not fit in their employment or rehabilitation plan. Such jobs do not count as “suitable employment” for VA because the job may, in the long run, aggravate the veteran’s disability. While the handbook says agencies are to coordinate to achieve “suitable employment,” it does not explicitly say how Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program and VA staff should deal with situations where a veteran’s financial need or preferences do not align with the goal of suitable employment. Absent guidance about how to navigate such situations, program staff may be working at cross purposes and program participants may be taking employment they cannot retain in the long run. This employment, in turn, may make a veteran’s disability worse and may make finding future employment more difficult.