Connecticut's Jobs First Program Analysis Data, 1996-2001

Résumé 0

This study focused on two of Connecticut's welfare offices, Manchester and New Haven, and used an unusually rigorous research design to provide reliable evidence about Jobs First's impacts -- that is, the difference that Jobs First has made relative to the outcomes generated by the welfare system that preceded it. To facilitate this assessment, between January 1996 and February 1997, several thousand welfare applicants and recipients were assigned, at random, to one of two groups: the Jobs First group, whose members were subject to the welfare reform policies, and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) group, whose members remained subject to the prior welfare rules. People were assigned to the groups through a random process, there were no systematic differences between the groups' members when people entered the study. The two groups experienced the same general economic and social conditions during the study period. Thus, any differences that emerged between the two groups over time -- for example, in employment rates or family income -- can reliably be attributed to Jobs First. The evaluation followed the two groups for four years. The study also collected detailed information about Jobs First's impacts on participants' children, and it includes an analysis comparing the financial benefits and costs of Jobs First for participants and for the government budget.