Study Shows: Workfare Doesn't Work

Washington state studied the specific effects of workfare compared with other TANF work activities. Research showed that workfare failed to improve the earnings or employment opportunities of TANF recipients. For example:

• Participation in workfare increased employment by only 13 percent. Those in jobs-skills training increased their employment by 35 percent, and those in publicly funded jobs achieved a 33 percent increase in employment.
  
  
• Workfare increased participants' quarterly earnings by only 4.7 percent. Jobs-skills training generated a 32 percent increase and publicly funded jobs, 76 percent.