All Things Considered

Poverty Rates Highest Since 1997

By Pam Fessler

Published September 10, 2009 4:00 PM

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Almost 40 million people in the U.S. lived in poverty last year — the first full year of the recession — putting the nation's poverty rate at its highest level in 11 years, according to new figures released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

The fact that poverty is on the rise is no surprise. Since the start of the recession back in December 2007, unemployment has been going up and incomes have been going down. The median income dropped 3.6 percent last year, and the poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent. That pushed an additional 2.5 million people below the poverty line. Many were children.

David Johnson, a senior statistician with the Census Bureau, says the increase is clearly linked to jobs.

"Children in nonworking families, children in female-headed households, children in families that receive food stamps, their poverty rate didn't change much," Johnson says. "Whereas children in earner households, the poverty was affected a lot. So you see a lot of it tied to the earnings change in 2007, 2008."

That makes a lot of people nervous. If things were so bad last year, what about now?

"These numbers are grim — grimmer than we expected," says Robert Greenstein, head of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He notes that joblessness continues to rise.

"This creates a very serious concern, that if we already were at just under 40 million Americans in poverty in 2008 — before the biggest increases in unemployment — poverty is going to go much higher than that in 2009 and 2010," Greenstein says.

In fact, he predicts that it could go higher than it's been in 50 years.

The view from Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution isn't much brighter. Haskins, a Republican who was instrumental in the welfare overhaul of the 1990s, says today's numbers show the country is in the midst of an extended period of bad news.

"We're in an era, I think, of several years of fairly serious poverty levels," Haskins says. "And especially if you compare it with the late 1990s, because that was a wonderful time for poverty. Way more people worked, in part, because of welfare reform."

He says the problem now is that the jobs just aren't there, and the prospects for future job growth aren't good. Haskins notes that almost all segments of the population have been affected — except the elderly, who didn't experience a significant increase in poverty last year.

"All over the country, married-couple families, middle-class, low-income, single-parent families, except the elderly, poverty increased for almost every group," Haskins says. "It's a very widespread phenomenon."

The poverty rate did remain unchanged for blacks.

Johnson of the Census Bureau said it's not clear why, but he noted that blacks already had a very high poverty rate — almost 25 percent last year, compared with 8.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites. Poverty among Hispanics rose by 2 percentage points last year to more than 23 percent.

There has been criticism recently of how the government measures poverty, and Johnson says the Census Bureau will produce alternative statistics later this year. He says, for example, if food stamps are factored into the poverty numbers, more than 2 million fewer people would be considered poor. But by any measure, Haskins says, poverty is on the rise.

Of course, that isn't news to people on the front lines. George Jones, who runs Bread for the City in Washington, D.C. — a nonprofit organization that provides food, clothing and other services to the poor — says his lines keep getting longer and longer.

"When the economy really started to sort of falter, we were seeing an uptick of about 10 percent increase of food clients over the course of a 12-month period. So two consecutive years, we saw that level of growth," Jones says.

It's been the same across the country. What has Jones concerned now is that he's only beginning to see the next wave of the newly poor.

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MELISSA BLOCK, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

The U.S. poverty rate hit its highest level in 11 years in 2008, that's according to new numbers released today by the Census Bureau. The Census counted almost 40 million people living in poverty in what was the first year of the recession. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

PAM FESSLER: The fact that poverty is on the rise is no surprise. With the start of the recession back in December 2007, unemployment has been going up and incomes going down. The median income dropped 3.6 percent last year, and the poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent. That pushed an additional 2.5 million people below the poverty line - many were children. David Johnson, a senior statistician with the Census Bureau, said the increase is clearly linked to jobs.

Mr. DAVID JOHNSON (Senior Statistician, Census Bureau): Children in nonworking families, children in female-headed households, children in families that receive foods stamps, their poverty rate didn't change much, whereas children in earner households, the poverty was affected a lot. So you see a lot of it tied to the earnings change in 2007, 2008.

FESSLER: Which makes a lot of people nervous. If things were so bad last year, what about now?

Mr. ROBERT GREENSTEIN (Liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities): These numbers are grim — grimmer than we'd expected.

FESSLER: Robert Greenstein heads the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. He notes that joblessness has only continued to rise.

Mr. GREENSTEIN: This creates a very serious concern that if we already were at just under 40 million Americans in poverty in 2008 — before the biggest increases in unemployment — poverty is going to go much higher than that in 2009 and 2010.

FESSLER: In fact, he predicts it could go higher than it's been in 50 years. The view from Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution isn't much brighter. He's a Republican who was instrumental in the welfare overhaul of the 1990s. Haskins thinks that today's numbers show the country is in the midst of an extended period of bad news.

Mr. RON HASKINS (Co-Director, Brookings Institution): We're in an era, I think, of several years of fairly serious poverty levels. And especially if you compare it with the late 1990s because that was a wonderful time for poverty, way more people worked, in part, because of welfare reform.

FESSLER: He says the problem now is that the jobs just aren't there, and the prospects for future job growth aren't good. Haskins notes that almost all segments of the population have been affected — except the elderly, who didn't experience a significant increase in poverty last year.

Mr. HASKINS: All over the country, married-couple families, middle-class, low-income, single-parent families, except the elderly, poverty increased for almost every group. So it's a very widespread phenomenon.

FESSLER: Although the poverty rate did remain unchanged for blacks. Johnson of the Census Bureau said it's not clear why, but he noted that blacks already had a very high poverty rate — almost 25 percent last year, compared with 8.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites. Poverty among Hispanics rose by two percentage points to more than 23 percent. There has been some criticism recently of how the government measures poverty and Johnson said the Census Bureau will be producing some alternative statistics later this year. He said, for example, if food stamps are factored into the poverty numbers, more than 2 million fewer people would be considered poor. But Haskins says, by any measure, poverty is on the rise.

And, of course, that's not news to people on the front lines. George Jones runs Bread for the City in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit that provides food, clothing and other services to the poor. He says the lines there keep getting longer and longer.

Mr. GEORGE JONES (Executive Director, Bread for the City): When the economy really started to sort of falter, we were seeing an uptick of about 10 percent increase of food clients over the course of a 12-month period. So two consecutive years, we saw that level of growth.

FESSLER: And it's been the same across the country. What has Jones concerned now is that he's only beginning to see the next wave of the newly poor.

Pam Fessler, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Source: NPR

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