For presentation at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Assocation,
August 14-17, 2010, Atlanta, Georgia.

This paper is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion. The views expressed or technical issues are those of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau.

This paper examines trends in TANF receipt and employment among women ages 18 to 64 annually from 2004 to 2007 using the 2004 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Results from this paper show that there was no significant change in the number of recipient women ages 18 to 64, the TANF participation rate for this group, or the characteristics of TANF-recipient women between 2004 and 2007. TANF women were less likely to work full-time and more likely to be unemployed or not in the labor force than non-TANF women and never married, non-TANF women, and their reasons for not working differ from those of non-recipient women. Employed TANF-recipient women are similar to their counterparts with no labor force attachment, except in terms of income to poverty ratios. Finally, former recipients are more likely to be employed and less likely to be in poverty than current recipients.