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 was distinguished not only by its scope and ambition but its careful research effort. A national management organization, the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) was formed to oversee operations and the extensive research effort that accompanied the program. Supported Work was the first major job training effort that utilized the technique of random assignment. Workers were recruited from among the four targeted groups, and randomly assigned either to program participation or a control group that did not receive program services. The employment and earnings of the two groups were tracked for three years after enrollment. Total costs of Supported Work reached $82.4 million, of which $11 million represented research costs.

Supported Work operated from 1975 through 1979. During this time, around 10,000 workers were enrolled, split between the participant group and control group.....

.....Establishing MDRC and serious research protocols for improving the employment of the “hard to employ”: MDRC, the research arm established in Supported Work, would not end in 1979. Instead, it would go on to become what it is today: America’s leading applied research center on workforce and job training efforts. Its rigorous use of control groups set it apart from nearly all other think tanks and policy groups. It may be the most influential legacy of Supported Work.....

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