This study attempts to analyze the various factors which may have led an individual living in 1995 and 1996 in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland, from regular employment to reliance on social welfare via a stage where unemployment benefits are received and another one where the individual may have a temporary job financed by local public authorities. The individual characteristics affecting the transition from one status to the other are analyzed using a logit model while the main features of the groups constituting the subpopulations of individuals holding temporary jobs and of those obtaining social assistance are determined on the basis of cluster analysis.