Despite the significant flow of single mothers into the job market as a result of welfare reform between 1996 and 1998, this analysis of 20 metropolitan areas indicates that labor markets were able to absorb these new workers without a negative impact on competing workers. Double-digit rates of...

Changes in social policies in the mid-1990s increased the penalties for not working and raised the rewards for working. These policies played a major role in stimulating employment among single mothers and the gains were approximately as high in nonmetro areas as in metro areas