Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

1997

Subject Area

Location - USA, Population - Unemployed, Social Issues - Low Income

Abstract

In 1995, nearly fourteen million Americans received welfare benefits which was developed originally to allow widowed or divorced women to stay at home with their children. The 1996 welfare reform package aimed to do just the opposite. The many changes seek to move recipients out of the home and into wage work. While inadequate access to employment clearly contributes to unstable work histories, poverty, and dependency on programs like Aid to Families with Dependent Children, it is by no means the only barrier to steady work for most welfare recipients. Increasing access to employment is no simple task. Poor neighborhoods surround many of the job-rich central business districts in cities around the U.S. Jobs may be plentiful and proximate to those neighborhoods, but they generally do not match the skills or experience of nearby workers. And, while the number of employment opportunities in central cities is substantial, policy makers remain concerned that growth in employment concentrations is greatest in low-density suburban areas. The effect is a gradual separation of low income workers and job opportunities for which they are qualified. While this is not a problem for workers with regular access to cars, employment suburbanization can dramatically reduce job opportunities for workers dependent on public transit services to reach far-flung job sites. Labour market studies indicate that middle and upper income people tend to increase their earnings by accepting longer commute distances, but people who work at or near the minimum wage do not increase their earnings by accepting longer journeys to work. Ideally, public policy makers should concentrate on creating new jobs in poor communities. It is clearly better to develop poor communities that it is to connect those communities with costly transportation programs to job-rich areas elsewhere. Another possibility would be to provide opportunities for large numbers of inner city poor people to relocate to affordable housing in the vicinity of jobs. Many are hoping that our transportation system can somehow link low income communities to job opportunities.