Sample report · Education & Workforce Development
We re-derived a published figure from the public record.
The Labor Department says Job Corps costs $187,653 per graduate. The operator association says it's under $50,000 per enrollee — citing the department's own file. Both are right: they're different metrics from the same workbook. We entered the published figures and the report reconciled the whole chain: $49,769.53 × 35,363 enrollees = $1.7600 billion — the program's stated budget, exactly — and showed how one program produces a $32,053 spread in cost-per-graduate purely from the definition of "graduate."
The situation
Two parties, competing figures, one data file that settles it.
An appropriations committee is weighing a long-established federal training program under active funding review. The department publishes cost figures under two definitions of a graduate; the operator association publicly contests the framing; an inspector general found placement assistance couldn't be demonstrated for 94 percent of sampled placements.
We entered the published counts from the department's own PY2023 data file plus the association's on-the-record figures — and let the report attribute every number to its publisher, reconcile the arithmetic, and show what each definition does to the headline.
What we supplied
Only public inputs — each one sourced.
Every input comes from a named publisher: the department's transparency data file, its 2020 methodology report, the association's statements, or the OIG report.
| Input | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total program cost (prorated) | $1,760,000,000 | DOL data file |
| Enrollees, PY2023 | 35,363 | DOL data file |
| Cost per enrollee | $49,769.53 | DOL data file |
| Cost per graduate — traditional / WIOA | $187,653 / $155,601 | DOL data file |
| Graduation rates (per separation) | 31.99% / 38.57% | DOL data file |
| Avg post-separation annual earnings | $16,695 | DOL data file |
| PY2017 comparison | $34,301 enrollee / $57,312 graduate | DOL 2020 methodology report |
| OIG placement finding | 94% of sampled placements | OIG 04-18-001-03-370 |
Source: DOL Job Corps Transparency Report (PY2023 data file) · download the source document we used.
The report
The finished, board-ready output.
This is the actual rendered report — interactive charts and all. Nothing was edited after generation.
Reconcile
Our output vs. the published figures.
| Metric | Published | Ours (computed) | Match | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total budget reconciliation | $1.76B program cost | $49,769.53 × 35,363 = $1.7600B | ✓ exact | Per-enrollee cost × enrollees recovers the stated budget |
| Traditional graduation rate | 31.99% (DOL) | 9,379 ÷ 29,323 separations = 31.99% | ✓ exact | Reconstructed from published graduate and separation counts |
| Definition variance | Both cost-per-graduate figures (DOL) | $187,653 − $155,601 = $32,053 (17.1%) | ✓ exact | Same program, same money — the definition of 'graduate' moves the number |
| Cost per graduate in years of graduate earnings | Stated by neither party | $187,653 ÷ $16,695 = 11.2 years | ✓ exact | The ratio an appropriations staffer computes first |
The report labels the association's figures as contested claims from a named party, keeps both publishers separate throughout, and notes that the department's press release and its own data file disagree on the least-efficient-center averages — one publisher, two numbers, disclosed. Where a naive division would produce a plausible-but-wrong 'implied graduation rate,' the report shows why that identity doesn't hold instead of printing it.
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