SUBSIDIZED EMPLOYMENT

More Lessons Learned From 50 Years of Subsidized Employment Programs: An Updated Review of Models

Subsidized employment is an engine for economic opportunity, stronger labor markets, and healthier communities. It can mitigate structural barriers to work, such as racial discrimination in the labor market, and be adapted and scaled to meet specific worker, employer, and community needs. This report reviews a half-century of evidence on subsidized employment’s power to increase employment and incomes, reduce poverty, and ensure a more inclusive economy for everyone. It is the second edition of a 2016 report, “Lessons Learned from 40 Years of Subsidized Employment Programs.”

Kali Grant & Natalia Cooper 

Subsidized Employment Can Help Fight Poverty in Good Times & Bad

Nearly 15 million people in the U.S. who would like to work are unable to find a job—despite a historically low national unemployment rate. This blog, published in partnership with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, highlights one policy tool that would help create jobs and boost earnings for people in disinvested neighborhoods and communities: subsidized employment. A half-century’s worth of evidence suggests that a large-scale subsidized jobs program would help ensure the communities typically left behind in periods of economic growth can share in the nation’s economic security and opportunity.

Algernon Austin, Natalia Cooper, & Kali Grant

Lessons From New Hope: Updating the Social Contract for Working Families

The COVID-19 public health and economic crisis made employment more scarce and exacerbated long-standing challenges—like access to quality child care—for millions of workers, particularly workers who are Black and Brown. This brief, published in partnership with Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, shares the success story of Milwaukee’s New Hope Project—a program with a package of work-based supports that included subsidized jobs, earnings supplements, affordable health care, and child care. New Hope provides a blueprint for creating holistic, work-based approaches that significantly improve employment and family outcomes for participants and their communities, during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Julie Kerksick, Kali Grant, & Natalia Cooper

Subsidized Employment Programs

Subsidized employment programs—programs that use public funds to create temporary job opportunities—have positive impacts on employment and earnings for people facing barriers to employment. This workbook provides a detailed look at dozens of federal and state subsidized employment programs spanning over half a century, synthesizes evaluation data, and offers a resource for policymakers and advocates interested in subsidized employment as an equity-advancing response to unemployment.

Matthew Eckel, Jess Belledonne, Bre Bambrick, Kali Grant, Indivar Dutta-Gupta, & Zachariah Oquenda

Types of Occupations in Subsidized Employment Programs

Subsidized employment is a proven strategy for creating more equitable and accessible pathways to stable employment for all—especially people facing serious barriers to employment. Subsidized employment programs can increase incomes and employment, reduce involvement with the criminal justice system, improve the psychological well-being of participants and their families, and reduce long-term poverty. This resource, published jointly with the Heartland Alliance, illustrates the wide reach and versatility of subsidized employment programs by highlighting the broad range of occupations available to program participants.

Sophie Khan, Kali Grant, & Indivar Dutta-Gupta
Carrie Felton, Amelia Nawn, Caitlin Schnur, & Melissa Young

Fighting Poverty with Jobs: Projecting the Impacts of a National Subsidized Employment Program

Jobs are at the heart of our nation’s debates around poverty and economic security. In this joint report from the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, we find that a comprehensive subsidized employment program would reach millions of U.S. workers left behind in today’s economy, reducing the poverty rate among participants by nearly half.

Casey Goldvale, Kali Grant, Indivar Dutta-Gupta, & Sophie Khan
Sophie Collyer, Christopher Wimer, & Isaac Santelli

Working to Reduce Poverty: A National Subsidized Employment Proposal

The Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality along with some of the country’s leading experts are excited to release a new article, “Working to Reduce Poverty: A National Subsidized Employment Proposal.” Subsidized employment programs that increase labor supply and demand are a proven, underutilized strategy for reducing poverty in the short and long term. This article proposes two new separate but harmonized federal funding streams for subsidized employment.

Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Kali Grant, Julie Kerksick, Dan Bloom, Ajay Chaudry

Realizing Full Employment: Bold Policy Solutions to Advance Economic Opportunity for All

This webinar provided an overview of the current subsidized employment landscape, explored a new policy proposals for a national subsidized employment strategies, and lifted up lessons learned from implementing these strategies in communities. We hope this conversation helps to build momentum for a national subsidized employment program and similar policy solutions that can help reduce poverty by ensuring that all people can access and succeed in work.

To view the full recording of the webinar, visit here.

To see the slides from the webinar, visit here.

Lessons Learned From 40 Years of Subsidized Employment Programs

A framework, review of models, and recommendations for helping disadvantaged workers. Featured in The Atlantic article, “The Case for a New WPA,” the center’s report presents the most extensive review to date of subsidized employment programs and models spanning four decades that target populations with serious or multiple barriers to employment in the United States.