The number of Americans living in
poverty rose for the second straight year in 2002, to
34.6 million people because the economy wasn’t expanding quickly
enough to increase incomes, the Census Bureau said.
The poverty rate climbed to 12.1 percent of the population
from 11.7 percent in 2001, adding 1.7 million people, according
to bureau’s annual report.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
The number will keep rising until the economy starts
creating jobs, University of Michigan public policy professor
Sheldon Danziger said. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent
last month from 5.8 percent in August 2002.
“We’ve got at least another year to go in poverty increases
because the unemployment rate in 2003 is higher than it was in
2002,” he said.
The U.S. poverty rate reached a 26-year low of
11.3 percent, or 31.6 million people, in 2000 following the
economic growth of the 1990s.
Household income fell 1.1 percent last year to a median of
$42,409, meaning half of U.S. households had incomes higher than
the figure and half earned less. Median household income peaked
at $43,915 in 1999.
Median income has fallen 3.4 percent since 1999, according
to the bureau. From 1989 to 1992, another period that included a
recession, incomes fell 4.7 percent.
“These estimates reflect the effect of the recession that
began in March of 2001 and ended in November of 2001,” said Dan
Weinberg, chief of the Census Bureau’s housing and household
economic statistics division.
Thirty-eight percent of those below the poverty line were
employed at one point during the year.
“A lot of those folks are working people,” said Jen Kern,
director of the Living Wage Resource Center at Acorn, a
Washington-based advocacy group for low-income families. “The
growth in low-wage jobs is a serious problem if we can’t ensure
those jobs can support families.”
Bloomberg News
