A study examined the effectiveness of five mandatory welfare employment programs in working with different segments of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) caseload. The study considered programs in San Diego, California; Baltimore, Maryland; several counties in Virginia; Little Rock and another county in Arkansas; and Cook County (including Chicago) in Illinois. The experimental groups consisted of persons who could receive the special service programs. Welfare recipients assigned to the control groups could not receive the services under study. They could, however, avail themselves of other community services (on their own initiative). The impacts and outcomes identified indicate that, if maximizing program impacts while limiting resources is the goal, it is a mistake to concentrate only on serving the most job-ready portion of the AFDC population. It also appeared relatively clear that programs should not focus exclusively on the most disadvantaged among the Work Incentive (WIN)-mandatory caseload (at least not with low- to moderate-cost services). The data collected suggest that program operators wishing to maximize impacts on earnings may find it desirable to work first with applicant returnees or applicants with weak work records, whereas those operators desiring to maximize welfare savings devote increased effort to the most dependent client groups. (MN)