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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Helping public housing residents find better jobs and build careers: Evaluation findings from New York City’s Jobs-Plus expansion (Leopold et al. 2019)

Review Guidelines

Causal Evidence Guidelines

Absence of conflict of interest. 

Citation

Leopold, J., Anderson, T., McDaniel, M., Hayes, C., Adeeyo, S., & Pitingolo, R. (2019). Helping public housing residents find better jobs and build careers: Evaluation findings from New York City’s Jobs-Plus expansion. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

Highlights

  • The study’s objective was to examine the impact of Jobs-Plus on employment and earnings.
  • The study used a difference-in-differences design to compare members in the targeted Jobs-Plus neighborhoods to a comparison set of neighborhoods before and after program enrollment. Using program, state administrative, and wage data, study authors conducted statistical models to compare differences in outcomes between the groups.
  • The study found that participation in Jobs-Plus significantly increased employment and earnings.
  • The study receives a moderate rating. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Jobs-Plus program, but other factors might also have contributed.

Intervention Examined

Jobs-Plus

Features of the Intervention

Jobs-Plus was created in the mid 1990's as a collaboration between the federal government, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation to address low employment and limited economic mobility in public housing. The program focused on individuals with limited connection to the labor market and primarily served residents in one of 18 public housing developments in New York City (NYC). Originally implemented in Harlem in 2009, the Jobs-Plus program expanded to other boroughs to provide economic opportunities for people who had been traditionally underserved. The program provided members with employment-related services that included job search assistance, job placement support, work readiness activities, soft skills training, and supportive services. Members also received financial counseling and assistance in applying for Earned Income Disallowance benefits that were aimed at helping members avoid increases in rent based on increases in earnings. The Jobs-Plus program also included several activities to help promote and strengthen community and community support for work within the target public housing developments.

Features of the Study

The study used a difference-in-differences design to compare neighborhoods selected as part of the Jobs-Plus program to a set of comparison neighborhoods. A total of 18 public housing developments across the Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Manhattan, and Queens boroughs in NYC were targeted for the Jobs-Plus program. Jobs-Plus providers focused on recruiting residents who had limited access or connections to the labor market. Most study participants lived in one of the 18 targeted developments; however, some did not live in public housing or lived in a non-targeted development. To assess the effects of living in a targeted development, study authors compared all working-age, nondisabled people who were officially living (on-lease) in targeted developments when Jobs-Plus was first implemented to working-age, nondisabled individuals who were on-lease residents in a set of comparison public housing developments at the same time. Comparison developments were selected by matching each targeted housing development to two to four non-target public housing developments that were similar in structure, resident characteristics, and neighborhood characteristics.

The study sample included 7,726 individuals in the Job-Plus program and 3,266 individuals in the comparison group. The sample was predominately Black (59%), over half were female (54%), less than half had a high school diploma or GED (44%), and an average age of 30 years. The study used several data sources including public housing resident data from the NYCHA database, Job Plus program data, and the New York State Department of Labor wage record system for the years 2007 through 2015. The authors used statistical models to compare employment and earnings outcomes between the individuals in the Job-Plus program and the individuals in the comparison group.

Findings

Earnings and Wages

  • The study found that program participation was significantly related to average quarterly earnings, with Jobs-Plus participants earning $41 more than comparison participants.

Employment

  • The study found that Jobs-Plus participants were significantly more likely to be employed than the comparison participants, an increase of 1.7 percentage points.

Considerations for Interpreting the Findings

Study authors accounted for employment and earnings prior to joining Jobs-Plus. However, some Jobs-Plus members were excluded from the study despite living in the targeted or comparison neighborhoods because they did not have their names on the lease. Additionally, the Jobs-Plus program was meant exclusively for residents of the targeted developments; however, the program did serve individuals not in public housing and those outside the targeted developments. It is possible that comparison group members may have accessed Jobs-Plus.

Causal Evidence Rating

The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is moderate, because it was based on a well implemented nonexperimental design. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Jobs-Plus program, but other factors might also have contributed.

Reviewed by CLEAR

July 2022

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