Barriers to Employment for Welfare Recipients

Abstract

With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, there has been an increase in research attention devoted to barriers to workforce participation for welfare recipients. However, much research conducted to this point tends to view the welfare population as a homogeneous group. This study examined eight commonly identified work related barriers in an ethnically diverse sample of 4014 active TANF cases. The results indicated that different ethnic groups face different barriers to workforce entry, with ethnic minorities facing the greatest number of barriers. In this sample, the Asian sub-population, comprised largely of Laotian and Hmong refugees, were at the greatest risk for failure. Implications for service delivery and intervention strategies are discussed.

Key Words:

• Barriers
• ethnicity
• welfare
• employment
• skills