(gee weren't we told that the influx of immigrants was supposed to support the housing market?)
quote.bloomberg.com
/24 13:45
Poverty Rate Rises as U.S. Household Income Drops (Update1)
By Tamra Santana and Bill Murray
Washington, Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The poverty rate in the U.S. increased last year after reaching a 26-year low in 2000 as household income slumped along with the economy, according to an annual Census Bureau report.
Median household income last year was $42,228, down 2.2 percent from 2000, when adjusted for inflation, the Census Bureau said. Half of U.S. households had incomes less than the figure and half had incomes that were higher.
Last year, 11.7 percent of U.S. residents, or 32.9 million people, lived in poverty, compared with 11.3 percent in 2000, the Census Bureau said. The 2000 figure was the lowest since 1974.
``These estimates reflect the recession that began in March 2001,'' said Dan Weinberg, chief of the agency's housing and household economic statistics division.
``Historically, poverty is still low,'' he said.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had an immediate impact on the U.S. economy, which already was contracting. In December 2001, the unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent from 4 percent a year earlier, and companies reduced payrolls for a fifth straight month, according to the Labor Department.
The Northeastern U.S. was the only region where median household income didn't decline between 2000 and 2001, the report shows. Income for Northeastern residents remained unchanged at $45,716 during that period. Income in the Midwest declined 3.7 percent to $43,834; income in the South dropped 1.4 percent to $38,904; and households in the West saw income fall 2.3 percent to $45,087, Census reported.
Foreign-born Residents
Foreign-born residents were among the hardest hit by the national income drop. Median income for their households fell to $37,948 in 2001, compared with $40,055 in 2000, a 5.3 percent drop that was more than double the national decline.
Median household income for black residents was $29,470 last year, a 3.4 percent decrease from 2000. Black poverty remained at about twice the national rate as it rose 0.2 percentage points to 22.7 percent. Poverty for black residents hit the lowest recorded rate in 2000.
A U.S. family of four was classified as poor in 2001 if it earned $18,104 or less. The lowest recorded poverty level nationwide was 11.1 percent in 1973, the Census Bureau said.
Median income for Hispanics declined to $33,565, from $34,094 in 2000, a change that isn't statistically meaningful, Census said. More Hispanics were classified as poor in 2001, with almost 8 million in poverty, or 21.4 percent, compared with 7.7 million in 2000, the agency said.
``The economic recession has impacted a lot of people and, in particular, Latino families are struggling,'' said Sean D. Thomas- Breitfeld, a policy analyst with the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group. The Hispanic unemployment rate is about 7.5 percent, he said.
Hispanic Trend
The economic situation for Hispanics is worse now than what is reflected in the Census report, Thomas-Breitfeld said. The ``downward trend'' will be reflected more clearly in next year's Census report, he said.
Unemployment in the U.S. will probably rise as high as 6.2 percent between Sept. 19 and the second quarter of 2003, according to this month's consensus forecast of economists surveyed by Blue Chip Economic Indicators. The jobless rate dropped to 5.7 percent last month.
The current recovery resembles the start of the previous expansion in March 1991, some economists said. Then, unemployment peaked in June 1992, 1 1/2 years after the recovery started, leading economists to dub it a ``jobless'' recovery. |
