Poverty Rates in Ohio and Kentucky

Poverty rates growing in Ohio, Ky., By Mike Rutledge, July 3, 2010, Cincinnati Enquirer: “Even before the Great Recession started in late 2007, Ohio and Kentucky poverty rates were hitting highs for the decade. Ohio’s poverty level rose above the national average for the first time all decade in 2007 and 2008. In Kentucky, where poverty was 2.6 percentage points above the national average in 2000, that disparity grew to 4.1 points by 2008, according to Enquirer research. But in 2008 – the last time for which poverty estimates are available – Kentucky’s annual unemployment rate was still a low 6.6 percent, while Ohio’s for May was 6.3 percent. A year later, Kentucky’s unemployment rate reached 10.5 percent while Ohio’s seasonally adjusted rate for May was 10.3 percent. The rates have remained at about those 2009 levels in May of this year for both states. Social service agencies believe when 2009 poverty rates are announced this fall, they will be higher than the 2008 levels…”