Job Placement of JTPA-Trained Welfare Recipients: Implications for the JOBS Program in Southern and Nonmetro States

Abstract

The new Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program was instituted to provide education, training, and employment for adults receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children. This study uses job placement rates for AFDC recipients trained through Job Training Partnership Act programs to gauge the difficulty participants in the new program may have in finding jobs. The results indicate that, at minimum, there would have been 56 percent more participants in the new JOBS program than there were in Job Training Partnership Act programs had the JOBS program started in the 1986 program year. Only about 60 percent of the AFDC recipients in JTPA-training programs obtained jobs, suggesting that the larger number of JOBS participants also would have had difficulty finding jobs. Estimates of job vacancies and competition from the unemployed also indicate that JOBS participants would face stiff competition for employment, particularly in Southern and nonmetro states. Lack of training facilities and employment opportunities in many rural areas may make it necessary for AFDC recipients in those areas to move if they want to participate in the new program

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