NY poverty level in 2010 higher than US average
An additional 68,000 New Yorkers fell into poverty in 2010, according to a Sept. 13 U.S. Census Bureau news release.
The Census Bureau, which summarized key findings for 2010 in the release, found 3.08 million people in New York state fell below the poverty line. This amounts to 16 percent of the state’s population, an increase from 15.8 percent in 2009. The national poverty level in 2010 — 15.1 percent — was lower than New York’s, according to the release.
Dale Tussing, a Syracuse University professor of economics who specializes in poverty, said the main factor affecting the fluctuations in poverty rates is the overall economic climate.
‘Poverty levels usually continue to rise in a recession, even after unemployment begins to fall,’ Tussing said in an email. ‘Even when the recession is over and unemployment has fallen to prosperity levels, poverty doesn’t usually fall for about two years.’
The State Department of Labor announced the unemployment level for Central New York a week after the Census Bureau numbers were released. The CNY unemployment level decreased to 7.4 percent in August, its lowest mark in three years.
In cities like Syracuse, the expanding white-collar sector — university, hospital and service jobs — is large compared to the dwindling blue-collar category, which is why unemployment fell in Syracuse, Tussing said.
‘What happened to unemployment in Syracuse is this: There was a surge of jobs in the service and professional category,’ he said. ‘But manufacturing employment and construction employment, which are the categories which have collapsed most nationwide, continued to fall in Syracuse, too. We are lucky that the white-collar category is pretty large here.’
Melanie Zilora, an SU alumna in a joint economics and public policy doctorate program at Carnegie Mellon University, said in an email that poverty and unemployment do not necessarily correlate, and unemployment is a tricky measure that may not reveal the total number of people who do not have jobs or are in poverty.
‘Unemployment is the count of people who are considered in the labor force (not retired, not on disability, not in prison and not in school) who are actively seeking a job and have not been able to find one,’ Zilora said. ‘This doesn’t include people who have given up looking for a job, and while it’s a generally accurate picture of the local economic climate, it’s not a direct indicator.’
Michael Wasylenko, senior associate dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and professor of economics, noted that the poverty rate measures 2010 levels, while the unemployment figure refers to 2011. The statistics are for different time periods, and it is possible that the poverty rate has improved since then, he said in an email.
‘But in general, the economic collapse we experienced in 2008 uncovered the severe unemployment problems we have masked for decades,’ Wasylenko added. ‘Huge consumer debt made it possible to employ more people and keep poverty less visible.’
An effective method of boosting the employment rate is equipping more Americans with the skills — such as reading, writing and math — necessary to work in an increasingly complex job market, Wasylenko said.
‘Our economy continues to demand more job skills from workers. This is not good news for many Americans,’ he said. ‘And our politics right now does not suggest that we are prepared to commit the resources to address job skills among those who have fallen behind.’
Tussing, professor of economics, said the main way to lower poverty levels is to increase the number of jobs, especially those that target people below the poverty mark.
‘Many of us believe that we need to design employment policies that specifically target poor people. An example would be federal subsidies to businesses and state and local governments to hire poor people,’ Tussing said. ‘Such a program was very effective back in the Richard Nixon administration.’
Improving income safety nets to sustain people who are unemployed or who do not earn non-poverty salaries is also essential in alleviating poverty, he said. This includes improving health care and income support programs for the poor.
Published on September 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm
