This article describes a study that examined the relative effectiveness of various job development strategies in obtaining job offers for persons with psychiatric disabilities living in an large urban area. During a nine-month period, a total of 1,255 job leads were pursued, resulting in 188 job interviews, which in turn, resulted in 27 job offers. The results confirm the long standing belief that previous employers are the best sources of job placements, as 70% of the job offers came from employers previously known to the job developer. The study also illustrates the fact that job placement, regardless of the approach used, is an extremely difficult, labor intensive activity that more often than not leads to no interviews and no placements. The methodology described offers an example as to how supported employment programs can systematically collect job development data for the purposes of monitoring and enhancing job development strategies (authors).
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