Upskill/Backfill Strategies: Advancing Incumbent Workers and Opening Opportunities for Job Seekers

In response to difficult economic conditions during the 2007-2009 recession, the U.S. Department of Labor funded ARRA grantees focused on training unemployed and dislocated workers in emerging and growing sectors to advance incumbent workers and open entry-level positions for unemployed job seekers. This approach is known as upskill/backfill. This report summarizes key lessons learned and documents benefits. These include job seekers benefiting from an increase in capacity of a company’s operations and ability to hire; employers benefiting from training that reduced costs by increasing worker productivity and reducing staff turnover; and communities benefiting from the preservation of jobs and the increasing income of newly trained workers.