Government Benefit Programs and Their Impact on Employment

Express Unveils the Consequences of Government Benefit Programs on Employment.

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Express Employment Professionals, the nation's largest franchised staffing firm, today released a new white paper exploring government benefit programs and their impact on employment.

The paper seeks to answer four pressing questions:

• Are people abusing the disability insurance program
• Are unemployment benefits prolonging unemployment
• Are welfare benefits creating a "low-wage trap"
• Have other programs become inefficient and counterproductive

These questions have taken on new urgency as government budgets tighten and as the nation's labor force participation rate (LFPR) has remained too high for too long, even after the economic recovery began in 2009. The LFPR is at lows not seen since the Carter presidency. Is it possible that programs designed to fix these problems are actually making them worse

"A Safety Net or a Trap" draws on a wide range of research, raw data, and commissioned surveys from Express to address this issue and offer recommendations for policymakers.

Robert A. "Bob" Funk is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has nearly 700 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Under his leadership, Express has put more than five million people to work worldwide. Funk served as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and was also the Chairman of the Conference of Chairmen of the Federal Reserve.

"Getting people back to work should be our number one goal in America," said Bob Funk, CEO of Express, and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. "When there are concerns about whether our social programs are keeping people from working, then we have to ask some serious questions. The safety net has an important role in our society, but it can't become a trap. Benefit programs must serve as a ladder for upward mobility."

Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated more than $2.5 billion in temporary sales and employed nearly 400,000 people in 2013, and ranks as the largest franchised staffing company and second largest privately held staffing company in the United States. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually.

"Express believes it should be a national priority to eliminate barriers that come between people and the jobs they want or need. So it's time to ensure our government benefit programs do what they should do: help people so they can get back to work."