The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (NDERT) was in the first wave of states that implemented REA initiatives in FY2005. From the beginning, their initiative was based on an integrated system of REA and RES (reemployment services) to assist UI claimants in returning to meaningful work quickly.

Design. NDETR pioneered the integrated approach to delivering reemployment services by having the same staff provide the REA and RES (reemployment services) to the REA eligible UI claimants. Other states implementing REA initiatives generally have different staff providing REA and RES services. IMPAQ International studied the results of Nevada’s integrated service delivery model in 2012 and identified the integration of services as the driving factor in the program’s remarkable success rates. ¹

NDETR continues to operate its leading program in which UI claimants are REA eligible if they: 1) received one week of UI benefits under a new claim, 2) have no work return date, 3) are not active in other training programs, 4) are not attached to a union hiring hall, and 5) not selected to participate in Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services program.

Dependent upon staffing resources in local offices, REA eligible claimants are randomly selected for REA services that include: a) an individual assessment with introduction to available One-Stop Career Center services, b) a verification of ID, c) provision of local labor market information, d) a Workforce Service Workshop, e) a UI eligibility and work search review, and f) development of an individual reemployment plan.

The same staff that provided the REA services provides UI claimants with one or more of the following RES services: 1) job search assistance, 2) job matching and referral, 3) resume assistance, 4) referrals to training and 5) follow-up as needed. Those not selected for REA-RES services were assigned to a control group for study purposes. UI claimants in the control group could receive RES services if they requested them.

Results. The IMPAQ study found that approximately 16% of the REA eligible claimants were selected for REA-RES services and that the socioeconomic characteristics of the treatment and control groups were very similar. The study found that claimants who received REA-RES services collected 3.13 fewer weeks of UI and $873 less in total benefits than those in the control group. The savings generated from the initiative produced more than four times the cost of the initiative
Link to IMPAQ report:
http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/FullText_Documents/ETAOP_2012_08_REA_Nevada_Follow_up_Report.pdf

^1.Impact of Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) Initiative in Nevada, 2012. Marios Michaelides, Eileen Poe-Yamagata, Jacob Benus, Dharmendra Tirumalasetti