Panel:
Implementation and Impacts of Subsidized Employment Programs
(Employment and Training Programs)
Saturday, November 4, 2017: 10:15 AM-11:45 AM
Soldier Field (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Panel Organizers: Dan Bloom, MDRC
Panel Chairs: Kinsey Dinan, NYC Department of Social Services
Discussants: Johannes Bos, American Institutes for Research and Chris Warland, Heartland Alliance
Subsidized employment programs use public funds to create or support jobs for people who cannot find work in the regular labor market. A variety of different subsidized employment models have been implemented or tested in the U.S. over the past 70 years. Some models are counter-cyclical programs designed to provide work-based income support during hard economic times. Other models use subsidized employment as a training tool designed to help participants prepare for success in the regular labor market; in other words, to learn to work by working. Subsidized employment reentered the national spotlight during the Great Recession, when state programs funded under the Recovery Act put 250,000 people to work in a short time period.
This panel will explore the implementation and impacts of a diverse set of of subsidized employment models. The first paper will describe the final results from a large-scale randomized controlled trial, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that tested two subsidized employment models targeting TANF recipients in Los Angeles County. The second paper uses innovative analytic techniques to examine the extent to which people who get larger doses of subsidized employment experience greater long-term impacts than those who do not, using results from another large scale RCT sponsored by the US Department of Labor. The third paper will examine the unique experiences of subsidized employment programs operated in tribal areas.
