The parole population continues to increase in the United States. This trend creates a need for an analysis of the effect of employment on the likelihood of parolee recidivism. The goal of the current research was to determine the propensity of employment on recidivism when the problem that employment was not randomly distributed among parolees was corrected. The effect of employment was examined among 1,270 parolees released from prison in Iowa in 2010 and its effect on recidivism, including re-arrest and re-incarceration, during a two-year follow up period. Employment was examined in two ways to assess economic factors and characteristics of employment, such as structure. These factors were analyzed using propensity score methods to adjust for employment among parolees. Propensity scores randomly distribute the condition of employment as a variable in empirical research. Findings suggested that results are stable across methods for conditioning employment propensity. The structural effects of employment evidenced the most significant impact on recidivism, while the economic benefits revealed a marginal impact on recidivism. Additionally, parolees that were employed had a lower hazard rate when compared to parolees that were unemployed.