Bryan Robinson lost his truck-driving job earlier this year when his drivers license was suspended. Now he’s on welfare and trying to find work in construction or another field.

“I’m brand new on assistance, and I don’t plan on being on it for too long,” said Robinson, 39. “I’m trying to find a job now.”

For Robinson and the estimated 250,000 other Los Angeles County residents on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the task of finding a job is becoming more urgent.

Gov. Pete Wilson last week signed Assembly Bill 1542, the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) welfare reform package.

Starting next January, current welfare recipients will be able to receive only two additional years of aid. The legislation, which puts the state in compliance with the federal welfare reform bill signed last year, also limits welfare recipients to a maximum of five years of aid in their lifetimes.

The bill has raised a number of concerns among welfare advocates. Chief among them: How will welfare recipients adjust to the world of work?

Some reformers say the answer lies in the state-funded, welfare-to-work program called Greater Avenues for Independence, or GAIN.

The GAIN program, which was pioneered in Riverside County, is different from other programs in that it does not emphasize job training. The emphasis is instead on simply getting a job.

“Four years ago, we were placing about 430 people in jobs every month through Los Angeles County’s GAIN program,” Wilson said last week. “You want to hear a success story? That number has changed. It’s not 430; today it’s 4,600 4,600 people who have found work through the GAIN program.

“That’s more than a 10-fold increase in the number of people moving from welfare to work.”

Ex-truck driver Robinson learned about GAIN while filling out forms at a Department of Public Social Services office, and hopes he will find work quickly through the program’s “Job Club” a class that teaches welfare recipients how to fill out applications, write r & #233;sum & #233;s, call potential employers and interview for a job.

Participants are steered toward jobs in which they are already qualified, or can be trained. GAIN officials say 72 percent of those who go through the program are still employed in L.A. County after six months.

After 12 months, 66 percent are still employed.

Funding for the program has steadily increased. The 1997-98 budget is expected to increase the statewide funding for GAIN by 91 percent to $529.5 million. Although local funding has not yet been allocated, Los Angeles County welfare officials are expecting another major increase.

“GAIN is a program that we’re going to be able to build on,” said Lynn W. Bayer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services.

“The last fiscal year that ended June 30, we placed over 40,000 people into jobs,” she said. “So we’re expecting to do even more than that in this coming year.”

Currently, Bayer said, GAIN is funded at a level to serve only about 20 percent of the county population receiving aid providing the counseling and job-hunting help they need in landing work.

The rest are on their own in finding a job.

Those who study welfare reform say it’s hard to tell what will happen when tens of thousands of welfare recipients are pushed off the dole.

“We’re in a new ball game now, and we’re trying things that have worked in the past,” said Rosina Becerra, a public policy and social research professor at UCLA. “We don’t have a good sense of what time limits really mean.”

Welfare recipients who enroll in the GAIN program first meet with a county worker who explains to them what the program entails, what services are offered and what the participants’ responsibilities are if they enroll.

They then attend a three-week “Job Club” a service the Department of Public Social Services sub-contracts to the county’s Office of Employment where they learn the basic skills they will need to get a job, such as filling out applications and dressing for success. They also are put on phone banks to call potential employers to look for job openings.

“We test them in the labor market to see if they can get a job,” said Raul Ramirez, a human services administrator with L.A. County’s GAIN program.

About 30 percent of GAIN participants find work through the club. Each participant who doesn’t meets with an assessor to discuss his or her education, background, skills and experience and what type of job he or she would prefer. Participants are also tested for strengths and weaknesses.

Participants can go back to the Job Club, receive training or remedial education, or go into a pre-employment program. Participants in the pre-employment program work for the county without being paid except for their AFDC payments so that they can list the experience on their r & #233;sum & #233;s.

Critics, however, say GAIN steers too many of its participants into low-wage jobs. “The big drawback of GAIN is that it does not really improve the economic well-being of the participants,” said Yeheskel “Zeke” Hafenfeld, professor of public policy and social research at UCLA.

“For those who are able to get a job and that’s really only a small fraction of those in GAIN once they work, their financial situation does not improve at all,” he said.

But Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Economic Development Corp. of L.A. County, said it is still better to move people off the welfare rolls and into the work force.

“They find out that it’s not that hard, there’s something they can do, and it’s not that bleak,” Kyser said.

The larger issue, Kyser said, is whether work will be available. Although the economy is growing, welfare recipients with limited skills will always have a disadvantage in getting work, he said.

Becerra of UCLA said that whether the local economy can provide for the new glut of workers is just one of a wide variety of concerns as welfare recipients move off aid and that the county likely will need to look outside GAIN.

“I think it certainly has proven itself in the last couple of years to be part of the answer, and now we need to examine what other components we need to enhance what GAIN does,” Becerra said.

But on a more personal level, Robinson, the former truck driver, is pleased with the attention he has received from GAIN workers so far.

“The way they treat this program, it’s working pretty good,” Robinson said. “They do a good job of following up on your progress.”