(a) Definitions. The work measures are defined as follows:

(1) The Job Entry Rate means the unduplicated number of adult recipients who entered employment for the first time in the performance year (job entries) as a percentage of the total unduplicated number of adult recipients unemployed at some point in the performance year.

(2) The Success in the Work Force Rate is composed of two equally weighted sub-measures defined as follows:

(i) The Job Retention Rate means the performance year sum of the unduplicated number of employed adult recipients in each quarter one through four who were also employed in the first and second subsequent quarters, as a percentage of the sum of the unduplicated number of employed adult recipients in each quarter. (At some point, the adult might become a former recipient.); and

(ii) The Earnings Gain Rate means the performance year sum of the gain in earnings between the initial and second subsequent quarter in each of quarters one through four for adult recipients employed in both these quarters as a percentage of the sum of their initial earnings in each of quarters one through four. (At some point, the adult might become a former recipient.)

(3) The Increase in the Job Entry Rate means the positive percentage point difference between the job entry rate for the performance year and the job entry rate for the comparison year; and

(4) The Increase in Success in the Work Force Rate means the positive percentage point difference on at least one sub-measure between the success in the work force rate for the performance year and the success in the work force rate for the comparison year. It is composed of two equally weighted sub-measures defined as follows:

(i) The Increase in the Job Retention Rate means the percentage point difference between the job retention rate for the performance year and the job retention rate for the comparison year; and

(ii) The Increase in the Earning Gain Rate means the percentage point difference between the earnings gain rate for the performance year and the earnings gain rate for the comparison year.

(b) Ranking of States.

(1) We will measure State performance in the work measures over the course of an entire fiscal year both for the performance year and the comparison year, if applicable.

(2) We will rank the competing States on the work measures for which they:

(i) Indicate they wish to compete; and

(ii) Submit the data specified in §270.6 within the time frames specified in §270.11.

(3) We will rank the States on absolute performance in each of the work measures in paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(2) of this section. For each of the work measures in paragraphs (a)(3) and (a)(4) of this section, we will rank States based on the percentage point change in their improvement rate in the performance year compared to the comparison year. The rank of the performance in paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(4) of this section will be a composite score of the rank of the job retention and the earnings gain measures.

(4) We will calculate the percentage rate for each work measure to two decimal points. If two or more States have the same absolute or improvement rate for a specific work measure, we will calculate the rates for these States to as many decimal points as necessary to eliminate the tie.