Can single parents on welfare find and keep jobs that enable them to support themselves and their families? Or will they need other sources of income in order to live above the poverty line? The IWPR research described here suggests that many single parents who have received welfare or other government assistance will be unable to earn enough to escape poverty unless they have other sources of income. Studying all families below 200 percent of the poverty level, IWPR researchers compared single-parent families (both those headed by mothers and those headed by fathers) with two-parent families to identify differences in their earnings, use of public benefits, and availability of other income sources.