Connecticut's Jobs First program, which began operating in January 1996, combines a time limit on welfare receipt with generous financial work incentives and requires recipients to participate in employment-related services targeted toward rapid job placement. The impacts of the Jobs First program were examined by following several thousand welfare applicants and recipients who were randomly assigned to one of the following two groups in January 1996-February 1997: the Jobs First group (whose members were subject to the state's new welfare reform policies) and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children group (whose members were subject to prior welfare rules). Members of both groups were followed for up to 2.5 years. The following were among the major findings: (1) although the main features of Jobs First were successfully put in place in the research sites, the program has not been implemented very intensively; (2) of those Jobs First group members who reached their time limit, approximately half received extensions; and (3) Jobs First increased employment rates and earnings throughout the follow-up period. (Fifty-five tables/figures/boxes are included. Appended are the following: descriptions of related Connecticut welfare reform studies; discussion of sample issues; and eight additional impact tables. The bibliography contains 20 references.) (MN)