US Lowest-Income Families Suffer Worst Unemployment Rate Since Great Depression

Rates of unemployment for lowest-income families in the U.S. – those earning less than $20,000 a year – have topped 21 percent in 2013, according to a report by the Associated Press on Monday, matching the level of unemployment suffered during the 1930s Great Depression and creating a wide employment gap between the rich and the poor.

Rates of unemployment for lowest-income families in the U.S. – those earning less than $20,000 a year – have topped 21 percent in 2013, according to a report by the Associated Press on Monday, matching the level of unemployment suffered during the 1930s Great Depression and creating a wide employment gap between the rich and the poor.

The Associated Press analysed federal unemployment numbers and found that in households where the income is $150,000 or more, the unemployment rate was just 3.2 percent. But in households with incomes $20,000 or less, unemployment was more than 21 percent.

At the same time, middle-income workers were increasingly being pushed into lower-wage jobs, which in turn displaced lower-skilled, low-income workers to become unemployed or forced to work fewer hours, AP said.

[quote]”This was no ‘equal opportunity’ recession or an ‘equal opportunity’ recovery,” told Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, to AP. “One part of America is in depression, while another part is in full employment.”[/quote]

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The AP report, which was compiled using data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey by Sum and analysis from Northeastern University economist Ishwar Khatiwada, also found that there was a huge inequality between rich and poor workers when it comes to how many were being “underutilised”; “underutilised workers” are people who are either unemployed or “underemployed” in part-time jobs when full-time work is desired.

Among households making less than $20,000 a year, the share of underutilised workers was about 40 percent. Comparatively, the figure drops to about 21 percent for those in the $20,000-to-$39,999 category, about 15 percent for those earning $40,000 to $59,999, and just 7.2 percent for households earning more than $150,000.

AP said that this reflected the widest gap in employment data between rich and poor Americans since such data was first recorded ten years ago.

[quote]”The people at the bottom are going to be continually squeezed, and I don’t see this ending anytime soon,” said Harvard economist Richard Freeman. “If the economy were growing enough or unions were stronger, it would be possible for the less educated to do better and for the lower income to improve. But in our current world, where we are still adjusting to globalization, that is not very likely to happen.”[/quote]

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Annette Guerra, 33, who has been looking for a full-time job since she finished nursing school more than a year ago, told AP that she had been getting by doing “odds and ends jobs” for awhile, but employers had become increasingly picky about an applicant’s qualifications in the tight job market.

[quote]”For those trying to get ahead, there should be some help from government or companies to boost the economy and provide people with the necessary job training,” Guerra said. “I’m optimistic that things will start to look up, but it’s hard.”[/quote]