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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Unemployment and Poverty – Ohio

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  • 1.5 million Ohioans are living in poverty, By Catherine Candisky, January 23, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “The economic tsunami has left its mark on Ohio. The annual State of Poverty in Ohio report — unveiled four days before Gov. Ted Strickland’s State of the State speech on Tuesday — is packed with sobering statistics. But this may be the most alarming: Since 2002, the state’s population has increased by 1.2 percent while the number of people living in poverty has grown by 41.7 percent. Ohio is now home to 1.5 million people — 13.7 percent of its population — living below the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s a household income of $22,050 or less a year. Nearly a third of Ohioans, 3.4 million people, had incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, a level widely accepted as needed to cover housing, food and other necessities. The report by Columbus-based Community Research Partners documents what many now know firsthand…”
  • Numbers show depth of Ohio’s economic despair, By Jessica Alaimo, January 23, 2010, Lancaster Eagle Gazette: “President Barack Obama and state leaders could be forgiven if they thought a presidential visit to Ohio occurred on Friday the 13th, not the 22nd. More bad news about the state’s economy preceded Obama’s visit to Lorain, where he promised, ‘I won’t stop fighting to bring back jobs here.’
    • Ohio’s unemployment rate rose to 10.9 percent in December, the latest figures from the Department of Job and Family Services. The jobless rate was 10.6 percent in November, and the department blamed losses in service industries for the decline.
    • A new report from the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies said 14 percent of Ohioans were living in poverty in 2008. Considering the number of Ohioans out of work has risen by 196,000 in the past year, the current poverty rate is almost certainly worse.
    • Ohio’s unemployment compensation fund is $1.8 billion in the red, a watchdog reporting group revealed, and employers could see big hikes in insurance premiums if the state doesn’t start repaying its loans in two years. Recipients also could see their benefits cut…”