In 1999, he and Tickamyer conducted interviews with the 29 human services directors in Appalachian Ohio. Most counties were awestruck by the possibilities such money created. We ve never had that kind of flexible money, Frech says. The things we re able to do are very much targeted to the things we re hearing from our clients. In fact, a 1997 study by the Office for Social Policy Research at Northern Illinois University found that the number of people with minimal job skills in southeastern Ohio to jobs in the region that pay at least poverty wages was as high as 186 to 1.
Job creation is the centerpiece of welfare reform.
In the last eight years, we ve had an economy that s creating jobs, but it s not creating them in Appalachia, says Julie White, an assistant professor of political science and collaborator on the welfare reform project. While her colleagues have heard this sentiment from recipients, agency directors, and county commissioners, White has heard it from employers. Her role in this study has been to survey employers in Athens, Meigs, Vinton, and Washington counties, querying them on everything from their willingness to hire welfare recipients to their feelings on welfare reform as a whole. Yet, when asked if reform in their counties was successful, only 8 percent said yes. Counties in southeastern Ohio, they say, had a hard enough time finding jobs for residents before welfare reform created a flood of new entrants to the job market.