Rare agreement: Obama, Romney, Ryan all endorse retraining for jobless—but are they right?, By Amy Goldstein, October 10, 2012, ProPublica.org: “In February 2008, six days before he would win the Wisconsin presidential primary, Barack Obama traveled to a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis., for a major economic address. Janesville is a community of 63,000 on a bend in the Rock River near the Illinois line, three-fourths of the way up Interstate 90 from Chicago to Madison. On the sides of downtown buildings, pastel murals by area artists show scenes from the city’s past, hinting at its muscular civic spirit and outsized role in U.S. industry. ‘History. Vision. Sweat.’ is lettered across one mural’s bottom edge. The small city has been catapulted into public view as the hometown of this year’s Republican vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan. But long before, it was the home of Parker Pen. And for nearly a century, the soul of the local economy had been the Janesville Assembly Plant, where GM had started out making tractors and, in 1923, begun to build cars. The oldest operating automotive facility in the United States, it was even four years ago a storied site for a campaign speech…”
Tag: Recession
Census Poverty Reports
- States see more poverty among children, unemployed, By Marisol Bello and Paul Overberg, September 22, 2012, USA Today: “States saw little relief from poverty in the past year, especially among children, the unemployed and those in the lowest income brackets. The latest Census figures show that 17 states had increases in the number of people living in poverty between 2010 and 2011. Only one state, Vermont, showed a decrease; the other 32 states showed no change…”
- Poverty grows in high-income Washington suburbs, By Carol Morello and Annie Gowen, September 21, 2012, Washington Post: “Some mornings they line up before the door is even open. All day long, needy residents stream by the food pantry on Prosperity Avenue in Fairfax County, coming for fresh vegetables, canned goods, milk and eggs. Food for Others sits on a street whose name rings with bounty. But the number of people seeking help there has almost doubled over the past four years, as the number of poor grows. Newly released Census Bureau statistics show that poverty rates rose last year in the Washington suburbs, even as the same data showed that the region is home to seven of the 10 highest-income counties in the United States…”
- Census paints bleak picture as 1 in 5 hit poverty level in Michigan, By Steve Pardo, September 20, 2012, Detroit News: “Incomes are down, food stamp use is up and the effects of the recession are still hammering Michiganians as the poverty rate continues to rise in both urban and suburban areas, new U.S. census data shows. A detailed snapshot of Americans’ finances to be released Thursday by American Community Survey show the state has a long road to recovery. The survey sampled some 3 million households…”
- Milwaukee’s poverty rate stands at 29.4%, By Bill Glauber and Ben Poston, September 19, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The Great Recession is over, but the hangover remains in Milwaukee, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Milwaukee remained one of America’s 10 most impoverished big cities, with a poverty rate of 29.4% in 2011. The figure was unchanged from a year earlier, signaling that the economic spiral that enveloped the city’s poorest communities in recent years may have hit bottom…”
- Poverty dips in Austin area for first time since recession, By Juan Castillo, September 20, 2012, Austin American-Statesman: “For the first time since 2007, the percentage of people living in poverty in the Austin metro area has dipped. The poverty rate also fell slightly in the City of Austin, but the percentage of children younger than 18 in poverty in the city climbed for a fourth straight year, to 29.1 percent in 2011. The figures are from voluminous data to be released today by the Census Bureau that provide the latest markers on the effects of a weakened economy but suggest that the legacy of the recession may be easing slightly in Austin. The data, however, offer a mixed view. For example, poverty grew nationally and in Texas, which had one of the highest poverty rates among the 50 states…”
2011 American Community Survey
- Incomes fell or stagnated in most states last year, By Josh Mitchell, September 20, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “The income of the typical U.S. family fell or was flat in almost every state last year, with the drop particularly steep in places where the economy has been hit hard by the housing bust. The median annual household income—the point on the income scale at which half earn more and half earn less—fell in 18 states in 2011 from a year earlier after adjusting for inflation, according to a Census Bureau report to be released Thursday…”
- Census figures show N.J. is hurting: incomes are down, public assistance is up, By Kathleen Lynn and Dave Sheingold, September 20, 2012, The Record: “More families received food stamps, fewer children were in private school and incomes dropped in New Jersey in 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday — all signs pointing to a continued erosion of prosperity in one of the nation’s wealthiest states. While many of the statistics changed only slightly, together they paint a picture of a state economy that was still lagging last year, well after the recession officially ended in 2009…”
- Baltimore’s poverty rate unchanged at 1 in 4 residents, By Steve Kilar, September 20, 2012, Baltimore Sun: “The poverty rate in Baltimore held steady last year with about 1 in 4 counted as impoverished by the U.S. Census Bureau — a situation that economists say reflects the fits and starts of the nation’s economic recovery. After a jump of more than 4 percent in the city’s poverty rate between 2009 and 2010, the rate held steady in 2011, according to data released Thursday. That stagnation reflects the national trend. In the past two years, 15 percent of the U.S. population was living in poverty, up from 12.5 percent in 2007, the year the Great Recession began, according to census estimates…”
- Michigan’s kids suffer hard times as incomes fall, poverty climbs, By John Wisely and Kristi Tanner, September 20, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “Despite claims in the past year that Michigan had bottomed out of the recession, new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show there still is much work to be done as incomes continue to fall and poverty rates climb — particularly child poverty rates…”
- Overall poverty rate in Tulsa County remained unchanged in 2011, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, September 21, 2012, Tulsa World: “Median household income and the poverty rate in Oklahoma and Tulsa County remained basically unchanged in 2011 compared to the prior year, according to new census data. The data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey also show state unemployment declined from 2010 to 2011, while income inequality increased during the same period in Oklahoma. The American Community Survey is an ongoing poll conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau…”
- Census shows Central Valley areas among poorest in nation, Associated Press, September 21, 2012, San Jose Mercury News: “Three metropolitan areas in California’s Central Valley, the region with the highest farm revenues in the country, rank among the poorest in the state and nation, Census figures released Thursday show. Fresno, Modesto and Bakersfield-Delano areas are among the top five U.S. regions with the highest percentage of residents living below the poverty line. The Fresno area, ranked as the second most impoverished in the nation, trailed only the U.S.-Mexico border area of McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, the American Community Survey figures show. Bakersfield-Delano and Modesto ranked fourth and fifth. The data compared large metro areas in 2011 of half million people or more…”
- Decline in Colorado household income slowing, census shows, By Chuck Murphy, September 20, 2012, Denver Post: “Household income continued a steady retreat in Colorado in 2011 but, for the first time, showed signs that an economic recovery is making progress, according to newly released census data. The median household income in the state was $55,387 in 2011, continuing an annual slide that began in 2007, when income peaked at $59,898 before the recession took hold. But in a sign that a gradual recovery is underway, the year-to-year dip was less than $400 between 2010 and 2011 — a big improvement over the year before, when it fell more than $2,000…”
- Census data signals economy bottoming out, but poverty in Oregon grows, By Hope Yen (AP), September 20, 2012, Eugene Register-Guard: “Five years after the housing bust, the U.S. economy is showing signs of finally bottoming out. However, troubling numbers stood out for Oregon, where food stamp usage and the percentage of state residents living in poverty both increased. The state’s food stamp usage led the nation at 18.9 percent, or nearly 1 in 5, due in part to generous state provisions that expand food stamp eligibility to families making 185 percent of the poverty level — about $3,400 a month for a family of four. And Oregon was second in poverty rate growth, with the percentage of residents living below the poverty line increasing 1.6 percent to 17.5 percent…”