How Community-Based Organizations Can Use New York State Employment and Wage Data: Learning from the New York City Demonstration (2016-2018)

Workforce development organizations often find it challenging to assess how former program participants are faring in the labor market, since they need to rely on participants' willingness to report and verify their job placements after they either leave or complete their programs. The 2013 Unemployment Insurance Data Sharing Bill (S5773A) amended the New York State Labor Law to make it easier for government agencies to obtain state unemployment insurance (UI) wage data for program monitoring, improvement, and evaluation purposes. In 2016, the Change Capital Fund (CCF) and the New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) identified the law as a chance to invest in a demonstration with four community development organizations that were already CCF grantees, aiming to expand their ability to collect and use data to improve their programs in coordination with the city government. This report describes that two-year demonstration and is meant to serve as a guide for other New York municipalities and community organizations that may consider requesting access to state UI wage data. It illustrates some of the challenges and opportunities involved in accessing UI data on program participants and offers some practical lessons for organizations in New York State.