How does poverty relate to work? Look back at Figure 19.5. Many of the poor are children or adults who do not work. That suggests one explanation for the weak relationship between poverty and economic growth in recent years. A growing economy reduces poverty by creating more jobs and higher incomes. Neither of those will reach those who, for various reasons, are not in the labor force.
Only a small fraction of the nation’s poor in 2006 could be considered available to the labor force.
Source: 2006 Annual Social and Economic Supplement;http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstc/cps_table_creator.html.
Look at Figure 19.8 . Of the nation’s 36.5 million poor people in 2006, only about 13.6 million—roughly a third–could be considered available to participate in the labor market. The rest were too young, retired, sick or disabled. Even of the 13.6 million, many were already working part-time or seasonally (3.8 million) and others were college students or people who were unavailable for work because of their family situations, such as responsibility for caring for disabled family members. In sum, most of the nation’s poor people are unlikely to be available for additional work.
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