This paper explores the role of public jobs programs in the U.S. economy from the 1930s to the present. It postulates that jobs programs are necessary because they serve four separate but overlapping needs: alleviating joblessness, hardship, and poverty; helping the economy emerge from recession; providing jobs to able-bodied welfare recipients;…

This review of the Job Corps, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, and the Work Experience and Training Programs, all established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, was part of National Manpower Policy Task Force report requested by the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower, and Poverty. It was believed appropriate to examine, after nearly…