Authored by Harry J. Holzer, Georgetown University, The Urban Institute; Julia I. Lane, The Urban Institute, U.S. Census Bureau; and Lars Vilhuber, Cornell University. In this report, the authors analyze the extent to which escape from or entry into low earnings among adult workers is associated with changes in their employers and firm characteristics. Findings are derived from a unique dataset based on individual Unemployment Insurance wage records that are matched to other Census data. The results show considerable mobility into and out of low earnings status, even for adults. They indicate that job changes are an important part of the process by which workers escape or enter low-wage status, and that changes in employer characteristics help to account for these changes. Matches between personal and firm characteristics also contribute to observed earning outcomes.

This MDRC report examines an array of welfare policies to help States determine which programs and policies best help single parents transition from welfare to work. The report examines the effects of over 25 welfare-to-work programs, including those that use job-search-first, education-first, and mixed-activity job-search and education/training strategies, as well as programs that use earnings supplements to encourage employment.

This report describes the Rockefeller Institute's May 2004 colloquium on State and local administration of service delivery under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998. Included are highlights from the keynote address by Mason Bishop, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor; a presentation of findings from the Institute's eight State WIA study and challenges for the nation's workforce development system; and WIA service delivery panel sessions featuring State and local officials and researchers.

This article, through the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, is the final report from an Academy for six States to acquire the tools critical in developing effective policies that foster a competitive and knowledgeable workforce. The States involved made the following recommendations that enhance the alignment of workforce and education programs with economic development.

This paper addresses how common are experiences of material hardship over time within a sample of clients on welfare, and if women experience multiple hardships. Based on the Women's Employment Study, this study reviews six forms of hardship including food insufficiency, telephone disconnection, utility disconnection, unmet medical needs, improper winter clothing, and housing problems. The author concludes that women were likely to experience multiple forms of hardship during the transition from welfare to work.

This article, published from the National Association of Social Workers, investigates the relationship of child sexual abuse, physical and psychological barriers to work, and employment outcomes among former and current welfare recipients. Results showed that childhood sexual abuse was correlated with fewer months worked over a 33-month time frame.

This article outlines the experience of six workforce organizations in the process of restructuring to become more outcomes driven. Reviewing strategies to increase communication among frontline staff around data, many organizations found positive results to better serve job seekers and employers alike.

Although unemployment has been low, since 2000, the average household income has been gradually decreasing. In 2005, fifty-five percent of children in low-income families have at least one parent who works full-time. This issue brief from the National Center for Children in Poverty provides data on low-income working parents and recommendations to improve conditions for children.

This paper, from the Institute for Research on Poverty, outlines labor market patterns among young adults and the transition to adulthood. By comparing cohorts from 1979 and 1997, youth in the later cohort tend to live at home or cohabit with greater frequency, but to marry less frequently, than those in the earlier cohort.

This report provides three profiles of workforce organizations in Colorado, Georgia and New York. Authors review how these programs were able to build their local programs and also provides strategies for delivering services to job seekers, employers, and the public agencies funding the efforts.