| 摘要 | Key Points
A growing number of Americans are not working, and concern is mounting about the negative consequences for these individuals and for society more broadly.
One potential solution is social enterprise, businesses that hire the hard-to-employ and offer on-the-job training to transition workers into conventional employment. Social enterprises target lower-income individuals with a barrier to work—criminal justice system involvement, severe mental illness, substance abuse problems, or homelessness—and disconnected youth who are neither enrolled in school nor working.
This report estimates that 6.6 million prime-age Americans have incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line, face a barrier targeted by social enterprises, and are not working. There are another 2.9 million low-income disconnected youth. Altogether, there are 9.6 million people who are potential targets for social enterprise.
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Introduction
A growing proportion of prime-age Americans are not working. As of 2016, 15 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 54 were not working, compared to just 5 percent half a century ago.1 Among women, the growth in employment seen until the turn of the century has begun to reverse, with their work rates falling by 3 percentage points since 2000.2 Meanwhile, concern has grown over the “disconnected youth” between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor working.
The retreat from work has harmful consequences for individual well-being and has contributed to weak economic growth.3 A number of reasons have been cited for the phenomenon, including reduced demand for low-skill workers, loosening eligibility standards for welfare and disability programs, changes in the nature of leisure activities, and changes in societal expectations and stigma surrounding nonwork.4
For some individuals, one explanation may be that they face barriers to obtaining employment. Criminal records can make it harder for potential employees to find jobs, and time served in jails and prisons can lead to deterioration of skills or the inability to develop them. Abuse of drugs and alcohol can impair functioning and motivation. Severe mental illness, especially when left untreated, can be a barrier to work as well. And finally, recent experiences of homelessness can create instability and are associated with lower rates of employment.5
One possible solution for people with barriers to work is social enterprise. Social enterprises are private businesses that often hire hard-to-employ individuals. Profits from social enterprises are invested in supporting more workers, and the goal is typically to transition people into other workplaces once they are equipped with proven experience and bolstered skills. An open question is how many nonworking Americans face at least one barrier that is targeted by social enterprise and, thus, for how much of the nonworking population social enterprise is a potential solution.
This report estimates the number of people who are facing at least one barrier to work, are not working, and have low incomes (below 200 percent of the poverty line). Barriers to work include criminal justice involvement, recent homelessness, severe mental illness, and substance abuse. The disconnected youth population is defined as 16- to 24-year-olds who are not enrolled in school and not working. These barriers are informed by criteria used by social enterprises in selecting eligible workers. Attempts to validate these criteria are left to other research; for this report they are taken as given.
Of course, not all nonworking people with low incomes and at least one barrier would be expected to work if given the opportunity with social enterprise or even if they faced no barriers. Thus, we also estimate counterfactual work rates for people with barriers to work based on their peers with similar demographic characteristics and educational backgrounds but who do not face barriers. This provides an estimate of the number of people who we would expect to work if they did not face any barriers or the unobserved characteristics associated with those barriers.6
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