Definitions & Methods

for PRISM Measures

Employment Rate measures the percentage of program participants who are in unsubsidized employment during the given quarter after exit from the program. The employment rate is calculated by dividing the number of Total Employed by the number of Total Exited.

Entered Employment Rate: The percentage of program participants who were not employed at the first date of participation and who are in unsubsidized employment during the given quarter after exit from the program. The employment rate is calculated by dividing the number of Total Employed by the number of Total Exited.

Median Earnings measures the mid-point between the value of the lowest wage reported and the value of the highest wage reported for those program participants who are in unsubsidized employment during the given quarter after exit.

Wage Gain: Of those individuals employed during the second and third quarters prior to the date of first participation and employed during the second and third quarters after the exit quarter, wage gain is the percentage of unduplicated individuals who had higher wages after exit compared with the wages prior to participation.

The measures includes participants who are determined eligible and who have received services other than self-service, information-only, or follow-up services.

• Self-service occurs when individuals independently access workforce system information and activities with very little or no staff assistance.
• Information-only services are activities or services that provide readily available information that does not require an assessment by a staff member of the individual's skills, education, or career objectives.
• Follow-up services are provided to WIOA Title I following exit. Follow-up services help ensure individuals receive the support they need as they transition to the world of work or postsecondary education.

These individuals are excluded from measures:

• Title I Youth
• Participants served by Oregon's workforce agencies who do not have employment as a goal e.g., an individual receiving SNAP (food stamps) benefits and is unable to work.
• Individuals who exited the program because of the following reasons:
  • Institutionalized
  • Health or Medical
  • Deceased
  • Reserved Forces Called to Active Duty
  • Foster Care
  • Ineligible
  • Criminal Offender
• Self-employed, except in those cases where follow-up interviews were conducted within one year after exit and the individual declared that he/she was working.

Data Sources

Data for the performance measures is collected from two primary sources.

Source 1: Each quarter, participating programs send three types of data to PRISM: demographic information, service data, and outcomes. The demographic data includes information about the program participant's age, gender, race, ethnicity, veteran status, etc. Service data identifies the type of service provided and duration of the service. Outcomes are the results of the services delivered.

Source 2: The Employment Rate measure requires analysis of wage data. PRISM uses wage data from these sources.

1. Oregon unemployment insurance wage records
2. Out-of-state wage records:

• Wage data from the Wage Record Interchange System (WRIS), which includes wage data from the 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico is used for employment outcomes for Title I, Employment Service, Trade Act and UI from 3rd quarter 2013 – 2nd quarter 2017.
• Wage data from the Wage Record Interchange System 2 (WRIS 2) includes wage data from 44 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico is used for employment outcomes for all PRISM partners except for Title I, Employment Service, Trade Act and UI from 3rd quarter 2013 – 2nd quarter 2017.
• The State Wage Interchange System (SWIS) replaced WRIS and WRIS2 in the 3rd quarter 2017 and includes wage data from all 50 states, Washington D. C. and Puerto Rico and is used for all PRISM partners.

3. Federal Employment Data Exchange System (FEDES) – federal wages from three federal agencies are used in PRISM from 3rd quarter 2013 – 2nd quarter 2017, when FEDES was discontinued:

• Office of Personnel Management (OPM);
• Department of Defense; and
• Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC).

Data Elements

Exit: For Workforce Partners, an exit occurs when a customer has not received any services for 90 days and no future services are planned. For Education Partners, an exit occurs when a student has not been enrolled in a community college or university for two consecutive terms. An exit does not equate to graduation. Students may or may not graduate at the time they are considered exited for PRISM purposes.

Exited and Employed (Wage Gain): The number of individuals with higher wages in the second and third quarters after the exit compared to wages in the second and third quarters prior to participation.

Exited and Employed (All): The number of individuals that exited and were employed during the second and third quarters prior to the date of participation and employed during the second and third quarters after the exit quarter.

Median After Exit: The median wages during the second and third quarters after exit.

Median Before Participation: The median wages during the second and third quarters prior to the first date of participation.

Median Earnings: Is the wage that is at the midpoint of all the wages between the lowest and highest wage earned.

Total Employed: The total number of unduplicated participants who exited and were employed in the given quarter after exit.

Total Exited: The total number of unduplicated participants who received services and exited.

Common Exit

A “common exit” occurs when a participant, enrolled in multiple DOL (Department of Labor) administrated partner programs, has not received services from any DOL administrated program to which the common exit policy applies for at least 90 days and no future services are planned. PRISM has applied the common exit policy to the WIOA Title I and Title III (Wagner-Peyser Act Employment Service) core programs and the Trade Adjustment Assistance program (TAA).

Partners

The following Oregon agencies and programs either currently submit data to PRISM, or plan to do so in the future.

• Department of Human Services (DHS)
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
  • Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)
• Oregon Employment Department (OED)
  • Unemployment Insurance
  • Trade Act
• WorkSource Oregon
  • Employment Services
• Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC)
  • Public Universities
  • Community Colleges
  • Title I Youth, Adults, and Dislocated Workers
  • Title II Adult Basic Education
  • Future Ready Oregon
• Oregon Department of Education (ODE)
  • Education K-12
• Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI)
  • Apprenticeship

Workforce Areas

• All Areas (Oregon, Outside Oregon and Unknown/Suppressed)
• Oregon
• Clackamas (Clackamas County)
• East Cascades (Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Hood River, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler counties)
• Eastern Oregon (Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and Wallowa counties)
• Lane (Lane County)
• Mid-Valley (Linn, Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties)
• Northwest Oregon (Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Lincoln and Tillamook counties)
• Portland-Metro (Washington and Multnomah counties)
• Rogue Valley (Jackson and Josephine counties)
• Southwestern Oregon (Coos, Curry and Douglas counties)
• Outside Oregon
• Unknown/Suppressed

ODHS Districts

• District 1 (Columbia, Clatsop, Tillamook)
• District 2 (Multnomah)
• District 3 (Marion, Polk, Yamhill)
• District 4 (Linn, Benton, Lincoln)
• District 5 (Lane)
• District 6 (Douglas)
• District 7 (Coos, Curry)
• District 8 (Jackson, Josephine)
• District 9 (Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, Wheeler)
• District 10 (Deschutes, Crook, Jefferson)
• District 11 (Klamath, Lake)
• District 12 (Umatilla, Morrow)
• District 13 (Baker, Union, Wallowa)
• District 14 (Malheur, Grant, Harney)
• District 15 (Clackamas)
• District 16 (Washington)

Confidentiality

To protect the confidentiality of participants, result sets with two or fewer records are suppressed for those receiving services from Workforce partner and Apprenticeship and result sets with 7 or fewer records are suppressed for community colleges and public universities (the University of Oregon is 10 or fewer records).  The (c) symbol is used in PRISM reports to indicate confidential (suppressed) data.