Declines in Unemployment Benefits and Government Employment Shaped Poverty Trends in 2011, Preliminary Data Suggest, by Arloc Sherman and Danilo Trisi, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, September 7, 2012
“A preliminary analysis of Census data for the first 11 months of 2011 (which are the latest data now available) indicates that the average share of people with monthly cash income below the official poverty line rose in 2011 by about half a percentage point. The combination of a decline in unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and a loss of public-sector earnings accounted fully for this increase in monthly poverty, according to the analysis. (The weak performance of the broader economy in 2011 accounts for the lack of improvement in the poverty rate between 2010 and 2011.)”
