Poverty rate continues to rise in Obama's economy

Poverty rate continues to rise in Obama's economy
Posted by Staff

The Wall Street Journal reports:
The U.S. poverty rate rose to 14.3% in 2009, the highest since 1994, as the recession weighed on employment.
A record 43.6 million Americans were in poverty last year, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The rate increased from 13.2% in 2008.
Meanwhile, real median household income in 2009 was $49,777, not statistically different from the previous year. Real median income fell 1.8% for family households and rose 1.6% for nonfamily households.
Economists have been concerned about the persistently high unemployment rate, which rose 3.5 percentage points to 9.3% in 2009 from 5.8% in 2008, the largest increase since the Labor Department started keeping comparable average annual data in 1947.