Skip to main content
Skip to main content

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

This is the cover image for the 'Moving Public Assistance Recipients Into the Labor Force, 1996-2000' report.

Moving Public Assistance Recipients Into the Labor Force, 1996-2000

  • by Kenneth Hanson and Karen Hamrick
  • 5/11/2004
  • FANRR-40

Overview

Moving recipients of public assistance into jobs is a goal of the current system for providing public assistance to low-income households. Using scenario analysis with a computable general equilibrium model, ERS researchers examined some of the labor market impacts of the "welfare-to-work" provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The results show that, from 1996 to 2000, the influx of public assistance recipients into the labor force put downward wage pressure on low-skill occupations, making wage growth smaller than it would have been without the influx. At the same time, the influx added workers to the labor force, which contributed to economic growth. By expanding the labor force, the influx contributed 1 percentage point of real economic growth in terms of gross domestic product from 1996 through 2000.

Download