Barriers to Employment

Abstract This article reports on employment barriers experienced by random samples of 200 people who have left welfare and returned between June 1999 and May 2002, and 300 who left welfare between January 1999 and December 2001 and were not on state Department of Labor employment rolls. Demographic characteristics of returners and their reported barriers to employment (transportation 32 percent, not enough pay 29 percent, no jobs in the community 26 percent, negative attitudes of co-workers 32 percent, stressful working environments 29 percent) were consistent with Wilson's (1991) article and Vartanian's (1999a, 1999b) work on the effects of the neighborhood environment and lack of access. Leavers, on the other hand, reported higher degrees of physical disability (53 percent), illness or injury (44 percent), and mental illness (26 percent) as barriers to employment.