Assistance program
WIOA Dislocated Worker Formula Grants
$8.5 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Employment and Training Administration, Labor, Department of
- Assistance
- Formula Grants
- CFDA number
- 17.278
- What it does
- Title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) authorized three of the six WIOA core programs. The WIOA Dislocated Worker program is one of the three core programs. The purpose of the WIOA Dislocated Worker (DW) program is to help dislocated workers get back to work as quickly as possible and overcome barriers to employment. When individuals become dislocated workers as a result of job loss, mass layoffs, global trade dynamics or transitions in economic sectors, the DW program provides services to assist them in re-entering the workforce. States can reserve up to 25 percent of their DW funds for Rapid Response activities. The program's success is measured by the following core indicators of performance: 1. Employment Rate - 2nd Quarter After Exit; 2. Employment Rate - 4th Quarter After Exit; 3. Median Earnings - 2nd Quarter After Exit; 4. Credential Attainment Rate; 5. Measurable Skill Gains.
- Who benefits
- Individuals eligible for assistance through the Act are workers who have lost their jobs, including those dislocated as a result of plant closings or mass layoffs, and are unlikely to return to their previous industry or occupation; formerly self-employed individuals; and displaced homemakers who depend on income of another family member, but are no longer supported by that income. Priority of Service is given to veterans and other covered persons.
- Who applies
- Under WIOA, the entities eligible to receive formula-based funding from the Department are the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and the outlying areas. Funds are allotted based on a statutory formula and states, in turn, allocate funds to local workforce development boards (approximately 600), which are responsible for operating comprehensive American Job Centers (approximately 2,400 nationwide).
- Authorized by
- Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was signed into law on July 22, 2014, and went into effect on July 1, 2015. The regulations were published in the Federal Register on August 19, 2016. The regulations for …
- Program site
- http://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments