The authors of this report use data from the National Adult Literacy Survey to assess the basic skills of adults on welfare and the likelihood that welfare recipients will be able to find and hold full-time jobs. The findings suggest that California will have a more difficult task than most states in moving people from welfare to work and that a substantial portion of welfare recipients may continue to need some form of income support, either because their very low skills make it difficult for them to find employment or because the work they do find is of such low quality and quantity that they are still living in poverty.
Report · April 1999