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Job Access, Commute and Travel Burden among Welfare Recipients

Department of Urban Planning, School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, pmong{at}ucla.edu.

Evelyn Blumenberg

Department of Urban Planning, School of Public Policy and Social Research, 3250 Public Policy Building, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1656, USA, eblumenb{at}ucla.edu.

Welfare recipients face a number of obstacles to making the transition from welfare to work. One is their geographical separation from employment opportunities: many welfare recipients live in 'job-poor' neighbourhoods far from employment for which they are qualified. Combining administrative data on welfare recipients and employment in Los Angeles with data from the 1990 decennial census, we show that greater access to local jobs in low-wage firms increases the likelihood that welfare recipients find employment in neighbourhood jobs. Moreover, welfare recipients who have long commutes earn less than those who find work closer to home, contrary to the pattern for most workers. These findings demonstrate that proximity to low-wage jobs benefits welfare recipients through reduced commuting expenses and increased earnings.

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