Temporary employment experiences of women on welfare

Females with recent participation in public welfare are a disproportionate and growing share of temporary help services firm employees. Research documenting low earnings, frequent job transitions, and low benefit rates among temporary workers has raised concerns that welfare recipients taking these jobs might have poorer labor market outcomes than those entering permanent positions. My findings show that a majority of welfare recipients working in temporary jobs were satisfied with their pay and working conditions and did not earn much less than those in other jobs. They did report, however, high levels of dissatisfaction with the lack of employment benefits received, and their annual earnings were still very low, reflecting chronic job instability that is endemic to the welfare population.