Work is not working for everyone in Memphis, Tennessee. A third of Memphis residents, including many workers and job seekers, are currently experiencing or at risk of living in poverty; 200,000 people live near or below the poverty line, and the city’s poverty rate is double the national average. Employment and education are not always pathways out of poverty: Roughly 50 percent of Memphis residents experiencing poverty are either currently employed or looking for work, and nearly 40 percent have either completed some college or earned a college degree. Workers with skills, training, and prior experience may still struggle to find living-wage jobs—that is, jobs that offer enough money to cover their family’s basic needs, including food, housing, childcare, and health care.

Memphis Works for Everyone (MemWorks), a partnership between MDRC and Slingshot Memphis, aims to determine what programs, policies, and interventions may be needed to help more workers find living-wage work and improve their economic mobility. The research team conducted focus groups with Memphis workers and job seekers to better understand existing employment pathways and areas that could be improved.

This report features descriptions of workers’ experiences making ends meet, drawing on focus groups with over 60 Memphis workers and job seekers who were looking to improve their earnings. Some focus group participants expressed concern about job quality and access, including low wages, barriers to gaining experience, and poor working conditions. At times, focus group participants viewed Memphis as primarily a distribution hub with limited job diversity outside of warehouse work and few opportunities to gain additional experience or be promoted. Further, focus group participants’ experience being in survival mode—a persistent state of feeling stressed and overwhelmed that can come from navigating lower-income work and poverty—could make finding and retaining a job challenging.

The research findings will guide the development of strategies to strengthen employment pathways and access to living-wage work in Memphis.