How Nebraska Measures Workforce Program Success

Nebraska measures workforce program success on the six federal WIOA performance indicators, negotiated with the U.S. Department of Labor and reported by the Nebraska Department of Labor for the state and for each of its three local workforce areas: Greater Omaha, Greater Lincoln, and Greater Nebraska. The state layer on top of that is operational: how the NEworks system captures services and outcomes, how the local boards perform against their own negotiated levels, and what the Department publishes in its Annual Statewide Performance Report each fall.

• Employment rate, 2nd quarter after exit: the share of exiters employed in the second full calendar quarter after leaving the program, verified against state UI wage records.
• Employment rate, 4th quarter after exit: the same measure two quarters later, the retention signal.
• Median earnings, 2nd quarter after exit: the midpoint of quarterly earnings among those employed.
• Credential attainment rate: the share of participants in education or training who earn a recognized credential during the program or within one year of exit.
• Measurable skill gains: the share of participants who document progress toward a credential or employment during the program year.
• Effectiveness in serving employers: measured at the state level on retention with the same employer.

Nebraska negotiates a target for each indicator by funding stream (Adult, Dislocated Worker, Youth) and the three local boards negotiate their own levels with the state. The six-indicator guide covers the denominators and the two indicators where programs most often lose credit they earned.

• The Annual Statewide Performance Report. Published each fall and filed with the Legislature (the Program Year 2024 report was published November 26, 2025), it carries the negotiated levels, actual results, and a narrative on each local area's performance and the state's strategic goals.
• Three local areas, three sets of results. Greater Omaha, Greater Lincoln, and Greater Nebraska (the balance of the state) each report against their own negotiated levels, so a provider's number is judged locally before it rolls up.
• NEworks as the system of record. Services, enrollments, exits, and outcomes are entered in NEworks; the state's monitoring and data-validation reviews check the source documentation behind those entries.
• Labor market indicators from the Department's Labor Market Information office, reported alongside program results.

Your program's success is judged on the federal layer as computed for your local area: participants' wage records two and four quarters after exit, credentials earned within a year, and skill gains documented before June 30. The state's report describes the system around you; your local board's negotiated levels are what you are measured against.

The practical consequence: a program's number is decided mostly by what it documents on time and enters in NEworks correctly. Programs that track the windows per cohort, rather than discovering them at annual-report time, are the ones whose reported results match what they produced. The deadline calculator shows when each window closes for a given cohort.