Do Temporary-Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence from "Work First"

Temporary-help jobs offer rapid entry into paid employment, but they are typically brief and it is unknown whether they foster longer term employment. We utilize the unique structure of Detroit's welfare-to- work program to identify the effect of temporary-help jobs on labor market advancement....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Autor, David H. (Contributor), Houseman, Susan N. (Author)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Economic Association, 2011-03-14T19:35:34Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Autor, David H.  |e author 
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100 1 0 |a Autor, David H.  |e contributor 
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245 0 0 |a Do Temporary-Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence from "Work First" 
260 |b American Economic Association,   |c 2011-03-14T19:35:34Z. 
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520 |a Temporary-help jobs offer rapid entry into paid employment, but they are typically brief and it is unknown whether they foster longer term employment. We utilize the unique structure of Detroit's welfare-to- work program to identify the effect of temporary-help jobs on labor market advancement. Exploiting the rotational assignment of welfare clients to numerous nonprofit contractors with differing job placement rates, we find that temporary-help job placements do not improve and may diminish subsequent earnings and employment outcomes among participants. In contrast, job placements with direct-hire employers substantially raise earnings and employment over a seven quarter follow-up period. 
520 |a Rockefeller Foundation 
520 |a Russell Sage Foundation 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t American Economic Journal: Applied Economics