Welfare to Temporary Work: Implications for Labor Market Outcomes

46 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2002

See all articles by Carolyn Heinrich

Carolyn Heinrich

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Department of Public Policy

Peter R. Mueser

University of Missouri; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Kenneth R. Troske

University of Kentucky - Department of Economics; University of Missouri at Columbia - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: September 2002

Abstract

Recent welfare reforms are prompting some state and local welfare agencies to use temporary help service firms to help place welfare recipients into jobs. Concerns have arisen that these jobs are more likely to pay low wages, provide fewer benefits, and offer less stability. We explore the effects of temporary help firms on the labor market outcomes of welfare recipients by looking at the characteristics of welfare recipients who go to work for temporary service firms and by examining their subsequent employment and welfare dynamics. We find that although welfare recipients who go to work for temporary help service firms have lower initial wages they experience faster subsequent wage growth. Two years later, their wages are only slightly below workers who initially had jobs in other sectors, and they are no more likely to be unemployed and are only slightly more likely to remain on welfare.

Keywords: Temporary Help, Welfare

JEL Classification: I3, J0, J4

Suggested Citation

Heinrich, Carolyn and Mueser, Peter R. and Troske, Kenneth R., Welfare to Temporary Work: Implications for Labor Market Outcomes (September 2002). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=340321 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.340321

Carolyn Heinrich

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Department of Public Policy ( email )

Abernathy Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3435
United States

Peter R. Mueser

University of Missouri ( email )

331 Professional Building
Dept. Economics and Truman School Public Affairs
Columbia, MO 65211
United States
573-882-6427 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://web.missouri.edu/~mueser/

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Kenneth R. Troske (Contact Author)

University of Kentucky - Department of Economics ( email )

Lexington, KY 40506
United States

University of Missouri at Columbia - Department of Economics ( email )

118 Professional Building
Columbia, MO 65211
United States
573-882-4229 (Phone)
573-882-2697 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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