Welfare to work: Building a better path to private employment opportunities

As welfare reform legislation takes effect, employers in both the private and public sectors hope to create jobs and offer employment to over two million former welfare recipients entering the labor market. We examine the economic environment facing these welfare-to-work efforts: the job market and the characteristics of the welfare population, current business approaches, and employment policy regulations which could be changed to ease the often difficult transition from welfare to work. This paper was originally prepared as a background paper for the Employment Policy Foundation's Wel-fare to Work forum held November 12, 1997 in cooperation with the National Alliance of Business and the John M. Olin Institute for Employment Practice and Policy. The authors gratefully acknowledge the con-tributions of James Van Erden to this paper, and the helpful comments of Max Lyons, Edward Potter, and Gary Shiu on earlier drafts.