Most people are familiar with the Labor & Economic Analysis Division (LEAD) of the NC Department of Commerce for our role in providing labor market information, but LEAD also supports the state’s workforce in other ways. LEAD’s Data Analytics and Research Team uses data from the NC Common Follow-up System (CFS) to evaluate the impact of workforce development programs, helping to identify which programs are most effective at improving the employment outcomes of jobseekers in North Carolina.
When we examine our state’s workforce programs, one theme consistently emerges: the most effective programs by far are the ones that allow trainees to “earn while they learn”. These work-based learning programs, including apprenticeships, paid work experience, and on-the-job training, are designed to bridge the gap between education and employment by allowing individuals to gain hands-on experience while developing in-demand skills.
This article makes the case for work-based learning, showing how these programs address critical needs in our labor market and may be particularly beneficial in providing employers access to work-ready talent, giving young people crucial work experience, and helping dislocated workers regain their foothold on the career ladder.
Employers need experienced workers
Every two years, LEAD partners with the NCWorks Commission to survey employers across the state about their hiring challenges. Results from the 2024 Employer Needs Survey demonstrate that employers who are actively hiring, especially those who are hiring for entry-level positions, are looking for applicants with work experience and employability skills. Notably, neither of these can be taught in a classroom; the only way to gain work experience is to work, and the best way to learn employability skills is through the day-to-day process of trial and error that comes with real-world employment.
Figure 1
Young people need work experience
One problem for employers looking to hire entry-level candidates is that more and more young people are opting out of work. In 2025, an average of only 52% of North Carolinians ages 16-24 participated in the labor force, a steep decline from 70% in 1997, mirroring national trends [Figure 2]. Rather than working, these young people have largely chosen to pursue full-time education. While education can potentially yield long-term dividends in the form of higher wages, a lack of work experience could counteract these benefits by depriving young people of the opportunity to develop the employability skills that employers say they’re looking for, especially for entry-level positions.
Figure 2
Dislocated workers need jobs
While young people need employment to help build work experience and employability skills that can benefit their career development, the situation is even more urgent for workers who have experienced a layoff. These dislocated workers often struggle to return to work, facing challenges that can compound the longer an individual remains out of work.
Periods of joblessness lasting 27 weeks or longer, often referred to as long-term unemployment, are becoming more common in both good times and bad. The share of unemployed North Carolinians out of work for 27 weeks or longer increased from an average of 18% in 2023 to 24% in 2025 [Figure 3]. By comparison, long-term unemployment rates in North Carolina never exceeded 14% during the growing economy of the late 1990s. Even though we’ve managed to avoid a recession in recent years, it is nonetheless getting progressively more difficult for unemployed jobseekers to find employment.
Figure 3
Unfortunately for these jobseekers, traditional workforce training programs have had a mixed record of success at getting Americans back into gainful employment after a layoff. Numerous studies funded by the US Department of Labor during the 2010s found that training provided under the Dislocated Worker program of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) led to few (if any) earnings gains among trainees. These results can be attributed in part to the so-called “lock-in effect” – trainees were less likely than non-trainees to be earning while they were learning and often failed to earn enough in the long term to make up for the short-term losses they experienced during training.
It all comes back to one thing: work
Young people can’t build work experience if they’re not working and are unlikely to develop employability skills if they’re not seeking employment. At the same time, employment has become more precarious, with those who lose their job having a harder time returning to work, but evidence shows that training provided to dislocated workers is often ineffective, in part because trainees are sometimes required to devote time to training that might otherwise be spent pursuing full-time employment.
This is why work-based learning offers so much promise. Work-based learning gives trainees the work experience that employers are looking for and helps early-career trainees develop the employability skills that are best learned on the job. Work-based learning gives dislocated workers what they need most—a job—helping to prevent the lasting damage of long-term unemployment and allowing trainees to earn while they learn.
Finally, our own research using data from the Common Follow-up System (CFS) has found that work-based learning programs can be remarkably effective, generating lasting gains in trainees’ employment and wage-earning outcomes. We show that participating in a registered apprenticeship leads to durable improvements in the employment prospects of unemployed workers and recent high school graduates. We find that work-based learning significantly improves the outcomes of WIOA program participants, including individuals served under the Dislocated Worker program. And finally, our research demonstrates that incarcerated North Carolinians who participate in work release have an improved likelihood of successful reentry, including a lower rate of recidivism, after exiting prison.
The next article in this series will summarize LEAD’s research on the effectiveness of work-based learning and outline some of the challenges our state faces in scaling up these promising workforce programs.