Taxi Driver was one of a number of movies in the 1970s that presented a menacing underclass, unemployed and threatening social stability. Fifty years ago, America launched a great experiment, involving more than 10,000 workers, to end the underclass through jobs. This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the National Supported Work Demonstration project, America’s experiment to end the underclass through jobs. Supported Work is little remembered today, but it was one of the largest employment demonstrations undertaken by the federal government up to that time, involving 10,000 workers. Its outcomes continue to be felt throughout the anti-poverty and job training fields.
Supported Work laid bare the difficulties in integrating the underclass into the social and economic mainstreams. The Supported Work participants were drawn from four groups identified in the 1970s as the “hard to employ”: women who had been on welfare for at least 30 of the previous 36 months, ex-offenders, former drug addicts, and unemployed out-of-school youth. The participants were provided with paid work experience, an array of training and social services, and placement assistance into regular jobs.
Despite these supports, two-thirds of the participants either did not complete the training/work experience phase or stay employed for more than a short time. The high failure-to-complete rates were linked more to behaviors than lack of skills. Skill deficits, especially limited reading and math skills, played a role. But more often the participants who did not complete were unable to meet workplace requirements or protocols or were not sufficiently motivated by the entry-level jobs.
In the years leading up to 1974, the welfare rolls and crime rates were rapidly rising throughout the country, especially in the largest cities. In September 1966, 439,394 persons were receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the main welfare benefit program, in New York City. By September 1972 that number had jumped to 913,087 persons. Crime rates, particularly violent crime rates, increased dramatically from 1965 to 1974. Popular culture at the time, in movies such as Taxi Driver and Fort Apache, The Bronx depicted a dangerous urban landscape, with a menacing underclass, unemployed and threatening social stability.
A blue-ribbon committee of the time sought to convey the gravity and urgency of addressing this underclass. In early 1974, federal officials, foundations, and university-based researchers began planning a large-scale employment initiative that would test an “opportunity model” of integrating the underclass into the mainstream economy. The project, termed Supported Work, grew out of a pilot program by the Vera Institute, built around transitional jobs.
Supported Work operated from 1975 through 1979. During this time, around 10,000 workers were enrolled, split between the participant group and control group. Less than 30% of the enrollees had graduated from high school. The majority of Supported Work participants did not complete the program, and the employment and income gains of the participants were not far above those of the control groups.
Though job training practitioners today have moved away from the term “hard to employ”, they still focus on the targeted populations of Supported Work. Several legacies of Supported Work continue to shape employment programs today, including transforming welfare offices, growing the use of transitional jobs, and employment social enterprises.
