We do not know that to be the case, so we do not make that assumption. Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institution pointed out, however, that the environment had in fact changed for welfare recipients. He noted that the employment rate among welfare recipients is even higher now in 1997 than it was in 1993, the last year of data collection for the research. Moreover, with the new welfare law, states such as Wisconsin were placing women in public-sector jobs. I would be pleasantly surprised if reality ends up painting a brighter employment picture for welfare recipients than what we have estimated.
Employment can have positive or negative effects on children.
John Lanigan of the Institute for Advancement of Social Research asked whether the research shows that getting off welfare and into work means getting out of poverty. There is the group in the research shared today, the changes within that group that have occurred since data were collected in 1993, and then a completely new group of women who have used welfare since 1993. It's a diverse and changing population, posing hard questions to ask, let alone answer. Judith Havemann of The Washington Post asked whether states would be able to meet their work-participation rate requirements, and whether exemptions from those requirements would change the picture. Pavetti noted that their research could not be used to determine whether the requirements would be met, especially given that the welfare recipient population continues to change.