This study employs the Survey of Income and Participation (SIPP) to assess the extent to which AFDC/TANF recipients worked in 1996, the first year of the 1996 panel of the survey. A set of rather common place attributes such as disability and health, transportation, number and age of children, educational attainment and work experience were subjected to bivariate statistical tests to assess their impact on jobholding of primary recipients. This simple descriptive approach shows that those who experienced one or more impediments accounted for more than four-fifths the national case load. Of nearly one-half of recipients who were affected by two or more impediments, only somewhat less than one-third held a job in 1996. On the other hand, twofifths of AFDC/TANF recipients seemed well placed to take advantage of the labor market. These individuals possessed three or more factors that facilitated work. Fully 68 percent of this group worked during the year covered by the study. Even greater differentials in job-holding were experienced by the nearly 20 percent of recipients affected by the most impeding and facilitating factors. The recipients favored by five or more positive attributes were seven times more likely to hold a job in 1996 than those with four or more impediments. Thus the population of AFDC/TANF recipients in 1996 was very differentiated in terms of capacity to take advantage of the new emphasis that welfare reform put on the world of paid employment as the road to financial self-sufficiency.