In May 2006, the National Poverty Center (NPC) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan hosted a meeting--"Research on Prisoner Reentry: What Do We Know and What Do We Want to Know?"--to discuss the state of research on employment-focused prisoner reentry programs. This paper, written as background for the meeting, reviews the extent and quality of previous research and the results of key studies, describes several planned or ongoing evaluations that will add to the knowledge base, and proposes some ideas for future research. The NPC meeting reflected the current interest in prisoner reentry on the part of researchers, community advocates, and public officials. This stems from the growing recognition that hundreds of thousands of prisoners jailed during the surge in incarceration of the last two decades are now being released and returned to their communities, particularly to communities of color. Localities, states, and the federal government have begun to design and fund new reentry initiatives. (Contains 68 footnotes.) [Funding for this paper was provided by the JEHT Foundation. Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by The Starr Foundation.]