Nation's poverty rate drops

from Casper Star Tribune

The nation's poverty rate dropped last year, the first significant decline since President Bush took office.

But not in Wyoming, despite the state's robust economy from energy development.

Wyoming's poverty rate was essentially unchanged from 2005 to 2006, said Wenlin Liu, senior economist with the state's economic analysis division.

He said Wyoming's poverty rate has declined since 2000, however. And the state's 10 percent rate for 2006 is lower than the national rate of 12.3 percent.

"Anyone who seriously wants a job can find work in the state," Liu said.

He added that there always are a certain number of residents whose earnings do not change or who may not work full time.

The sampling for the survey was small -- 6,000 households in Wyoming.

Liu said he was surprised that the state's median household income after inflation did not change between 2005 and 2006.

"I thought we would have an income gain," he said.

In 2005, he said, Wyoming had the highest increase in wages -- 6.5 percent -- of any state in the country.

The 2006 wage figures, which account for 80 percent of total household income, are not yet available.

The Census Bureau, meanwhile, reported Tuesday that 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent, were living in poverty last year. That's down from 12.6 percent in 2005.

The median household income was $48,200, a slight increase from the previous year. But the number of people without health insurance also increased, to 47 million.

The last significant decline in the poverty rate came in 2000, during the Clinton administration. In 2005, the poverty rate dipped from 12.7 percent to 12.6 percent, but Census officials said that change was statistically insignificant.

The poverty numbers are good economic news at a time when the nation's financial markets have been rattled by a slumping housing market. However, the numbers released Tuesday represent economic conditions from a year ago.

The poverty level is the official measure used to decide eligibility for federal health, housing, nutrition and child care benefits. It differs by family size and makeup. For a family of four with two children, for example, the poverty level is $20,444. The poverty rate -- the percentage of people living below poverty -- helps shape the debate on the health of the nation's economy.

The figures were released at a news conference by David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. The poverty report comes five years into an uneven economic recovery, and well into a presidential campaign that still has 14 months to go.

Poverty has not been a big issue in the campaign, and political scientists said they doubted the new numbers would change that.