Having unemployed parents in early and late childhood creates long-lasting negative impacts on people’s quality of life. This study uses qualitative interviews on well-being and three decades of German panel data to conclude that having unemployed parents in childhood (0-5 years old) and adolescence (11-15 years old) creates a modest but psychologically and economically significant impact on reported well-being later in life. However, effects vary by gender, and some children with unemployed parents experience positive consequences like higher parental investment. Overall, though, stressors and burdens of responsibility on children of unemployed parents provide another reason to focus on lowering barriers to employment for job-seeking adults.

This report describes how a new smartphone-based application, DadTime, was developed jointly by fathers and the nonprofit MDRC to encourage attendance and participation in the Just Beginning parenting program. The app both provides reminders to attend Just Beginning sessions and reiterates techniques learned in the sessions through interactive tools. The study asked for feedback and used concrete suggestions, like allowing fathers to set the time of day of notifications, using more icons and emojis, and asking parents how they felt when they opened the app, to tailor the application. Overall, the new version of DadTime will hopefully increase user engagement and participation in the Just Beginning intervention.

This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is part of the "Self-Sufficiency Series: Solutions from the Field" and highlights a West Virginian program that aims to teach at-risk youth about the “success sequence” path from school to work through marriage and family in a positive and non-judgmental way. Project T.H.I.N.K. discusses healthy relationships and provides resources to inform participants about the transition to adulthood, which can help them avoid early pregnancies, overcome poverty traps, understand what being a parent might be like, and ultimately lay a foundation for a successful and mobile future. The project especially tries to avoid shaming or nagging and works to understand the situations of all participants, whether they already have children or not.

This paper summarizes 40 years of randomized controlled trials (RCT) field experiments on programs and interventions in the unemployment insurance (UI) system to mitigate work disincentives and to help laborers reenter the job market. It is well known that unemployment insurance discourages people from quickly finding a new job if they are unemployed. However, interventions like reemployment bonuses, stronger work-search requirements, and job search assistance significantly decrease time spent without a job while being cost-effective. Hiring incentives for employers and removing the work test, on the other hand, are ineffective. The numerous experiments in the paper can offer strategies for combatting UI’s moral hazard to lower the time people spend unemployed.

Re-employment services (RES) are crucial to connect unemployed works with current job market opportunities to help both the worker and the local and national economies. This page highlights many resources and presentations that support reemployment and can help program administrators implement reemployment strategies. They highlight one Department of Labor tool, the Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services system, which profiles those on unemployment insurance (UI) to identify those likely to need RES or who may use up their UI benefits. State and local entities can use this system, in conjunction with other resources listed on this page, to help fill labor needs in growing markets and decrease unemployment.

In this article issued by the Institute for Research on Poverty, discussion highlights the effects of paid leave on mothers’ post-birth employment and on child well-being. Policies, such as work requirements, time limits, and child care subsidies, are effective levers for increasing employment. Yet this research also suggests that any assessments of these policies must consider not only benefits of increased maternal employment, but also the potential costs associated with reduced child well-being.

This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is part of the "Self-Sufficiency Series: Solutions from the Field" and highlights the Building Wealth and Health Network for the work they do to build social and financial capital of TANF recipients. Based on research that shows the beneficial effects of high social and monetary capital, the Network provides group financial empowerment classes and other resources with a specific focus on those overcoming violence or adversity in their past. There is also a peer support component that creates connections among participants, which increases social capital and helps members feel engaged and self-sufficient and makes the program sustainable. Randomized control trial results suggest that this program increased employment, earnings, and self-sufficiency while decreasing depression and economic hardship among members.

This research brief, drawn from the Homeless Families Research Briefs project out of the Office of Policy, Planning research & Evaluation, explores issues of family homelessness that are especially relevant to HHS, to state and local decision makers, and for programs. The Employment of Families Experiencing Homelessness brief explores parents’ earnings at the time the family was in emergency shelter, prior to becoming homeless and at 20 and 37 months after experiencing homelessness. This new brief examines employment rates, compares the employment rates of families experiencing homelessness to the employment rate of parents in deeply poor families in the same communities, discusses barriers parents identified for not working, and explores the relationship between employment, income, and continued housing instability.

New Census data comes out in mid-September, and this webinar hosted by the Coalition on Human Needs aims to forecast trends that may emerge and help stakeholders understand what to look for when the data is released. Specifically, the speakers and moderators will focus on how the data can answer questions about the best ways to raise incomes, reduce poverty, and evaluate the effectiveness of new work requirement policies for social support programs. They will also discuss which relevant data to watch for and how to find specific information of interest. Visit their website to register for the event on September 6, 2018.

The Ticket to Work program provides individuals with disabilities receiving disability benefits opportunities to return to work, stay employed, and increase earnings. As a result, beneficiaries with disabilities may reduce their dependency on public benefits and become more economically self-sufficient. This webinar (on September 12) focuses on how Ticket to Work operates and the different partnership models now available consistent with the goals of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).