The Economic Impacts and Return on Investment of San Antonio Ready to Work

I recently completed a study of the economic impacts of the San Antonio Ready to Work program in collaboration with my colleague, Dr. Belinda Roman. The full report can be found here. The analysis projected the increase in incomes over the careers of those participants who completed their training and are placed into jobs, the economic impacts of the spending resulting from the increased incomes, and the savings to various social programs (e.g., Medicaid, WIC, TANF) that they will no longer need because of their increased earnings. These results are shown in the following table. The total benefits will amount to about $11.8 billion, and compared against the total program costs of $94.3 million, the return on investment will amount to $125 in benefits per dollar spent.

Investment in programs focused on workforce development like San Antonio Ready to Work are fundamental to the continued development of the San Antonio economy. Their importance may be enhanced in the future given the potential disruptive effects of AI on the labor market in the future.