Employment & Self-Sufficiency

In focus group discussions with 44 working parents receiving assistance from one or more federal programs, many parents shared the view that increasing earnings involves a number of risks. Participants described the sequence of possible risk events as follows:

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented economic and social impact on Americans, with particularly harsh effects on people in certain race and ethnic groups. Public programs intended to address these needs have also had uneven reach, with many less likely to benefit families of color.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented economic crisis with inequitable effects. Overall employment figures mask the disparate impacts on some communities of color, women, and low-wage workers. These groups were more likely to lose jobs, reduce hours worked, or withdraw from the labor market.

Substance use coercion occurs when perpetrators of intimate partner violence undermine and control their partners through substance-use related tactics and actively keep them from meeting treatment and recovery goals. Substance use coercion is common among victims of abuse and is a barrier to victims' economic stability.

This is the third ASPE brief about a qualitative study examining lower-income mothers’ attachment to work around the time of childbirth and the role of state paid family leave (PFL) programs in supporting their return to employment. This brief focuses on the role of PFL in facilitating child care arrangements of a sample of mothers. Highlights are:

Analysis of State Efforts to Comply with Fair Labor Standards Act Protections to Home Care Workers Pamela J. Doty, Ph.D., and Marie R. Squillace, Ph.D. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Edward Kako, Ph.D.

This brief summarizes the current set of federal performance indicators and provides key policy considerations for policymakers and administrators within federal and state agencies who are interested in building a framework for coordinated performance measurement.

This brief outlines actionable steps that program designers at the federal, state, or local level can take to build or use aligned measures across programs in ways that can improve program management and increase service coordination.

Among employed adults, major depression is a leading cause of work absences (absenteeism) and impaired work performance (presenteeism) as well as short-term and long-term work disability. Depression is one of the largest and fastest growing categories of work disability claims filings in the public and private disability insurance sectors.

Individuals and families frequently qualify for multiple human services and employment programs that are funded, regulated, and administered by different federal agencies—each with their own eligibility criteria, program requirements, and performance indicators.