Contra Costa County employers have found that CalWORKs parents make terrific employees. Since July 1998, CalWORKs Welfare-to-Work participants were placed in over 36,000 jobs.

Working CalWORKs participants earned an average hourly wage of $8.24 in 2008.

Over 1,500 CalWORKs participants left welfare due to employment in 2008.

Earnings of hardworking CalWORKs participants topped over $17,100,000 in 2008.

On average, 23% of all CalWORKs aided households have earned income in 2008.

In 2008, we made 8,723 referrals to the Department of Child Support Services.

CalWORKs participants have become employed in over fifty different occupational categories with salaries ranging from minimum wage to over $25 dollars an hour.

In 2008, Cal-Learn Teens earned 48 bonuses for passing report cards and graduations.

In 2008, 17 Cal-Learn Teens graduated from high school.

In 2008, the Advocacy Unit recovered $342,517 in SSI benefits.

In 2008, CalWORKs applications were up 12.5% over the previous year.

Our total monthly CalWORKs cases average over 9,400, the highest they've been since 1998 when welfare reform was implemented.

The average monthly CalWORKs caseload has been increasing steadily since 2003 at approximately 4% per year.

In 2008, CalWORKs cash aid payments average $4.2 million per month.

In January 2009, CalWORKs applications increased 7.3% over January 2008 and 23.3% compared to January 2007.

In January 2009, we served 9,963 families - an 8.8% increase over January 2008 and a 12.6 increase over January 2007.

The 9,963 families include 22,810 individuals - 9.2% increase in the number of individuals served in January 2008 and a 12.5% increase over January 2007.

In January 2009, we issued $4,503,182 in CalWORKs cash aid payments - an 8% increase over January 2008 and a 10.5% increase over January 2007.

In January 2009, Contra Costa County's Unemployment rate was 9% compared to 5.3% in January 2008 and 4.6% in January 2007.