An official with the Department of Labor says an AFL-CIO's report on apprentice training programs run by the Associated Builders and Contractors group presents “incomplete data” and cannot be used to “draw conclusions about the performance of a specific program,” and is “not suitable for making comparison between programs.”

Last year the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Department issued a report that said ABC's apprentice programs have more dropouts than graduates and enrolled a small percentage of female and minority apprentices.

In a letter from Emily Stover DeRocco, the DOL's assistant secretary for employment and training to Edward C. Sullivan, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department, DeRocco says the DOL is currently reviewing methods to advance the apprenticeship system. However, DeRocco writes that the DOL's Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services considers “the lack of contextual narrative and insufficient information” presented in the AFL-CIO's report “do not support the conclusion the report suggests.”