Do Single Mothers Face Greater Constraints to Workforce Participation in Non-Metropolitan Areas?

Increasing workforce participation among single mothers is the primary goal of recent welfare reform measures. This article shows that increased workforce participation in the mid to late 1990s led to improvements in the economic well-being of non-metropolitan and metropolitan area families headed by single mothers. Differential benefits and costs of workforce participation of single mothers in non-metropolitan and metropolitan areas are then examined. Single mothers are found to face lower costs to workforce participation and receive lower hourly earnings in non-metropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas. Young children do, however, raise workforce participation costs more in non-metropolitan areas. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.