Finding the Next Job: Reemployment Strategies in Retention and Advancement Programs for Current...

Current and former welfare recipients often have very unstable employment experiences. They find low-wage work but then quickly lose these jobs (either voluntarily or not), have trouble finding another job, and are unable to achieve earnings gains, even over time. This practitioner brief offers program administrators...practical advice on how to design and implement policies that turn a recent job loss into an opportunity to find a better job. A central lesson from this evaluation is that retention and advancement programs for this population confront very rapid and high rates of job loss despite the services provided and must therefore focus as much, if not more, on reemploying program participants as on helping them advance in existing jobs (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

Full publication title: Finding the Next Job: Reemployment Strategies in Retention and Advancement Programs for Current and Former Welfare Recipients

"Job loss is common, especially during the initial months after starting a job. There was a relatively high rate of job loss across the ERA sites; about 14 percent of those working in any given quarter were not working by the next quarter" (p.4). "Many program participants experience long periods of unemployment between jobs. Individuals who lost their jobs after entering the ERA study generally spent long periods out of work" (p.4). "The ERA evaluation found that quickly reemploying participants in better jobs can increase longer-term employment and earnings" (p.12). "Employment programs seeking to improve retention and to support advancement among workers should consider the need to be prepared to address job loss quickly, to help newly unemployed workers learn from their experience, and to focus on placing individuals into better jobs that – besides providing higher wages- match their skills, interests, and education, to the extent possible" (p.10). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Wavelet, Melissa; Martinson, Karin; Hamilton, Gayle
• Organizational Author(s): MDRC
• Funding Source: Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Labor
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies