July 03, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Farm and service workers have highest poverty rates

During 2001, farm workers and service employees were more likely to be classified as working poor than were workers in other occupations.

[Chart data—TXT]

The poverty rate for workers in farming, forestry and fishing occupations was 14.3 percent in 2001. For those in service occupations, the poverty rate was 10.8 percent. The 2.0 million working poor in service occupations, in fact, accounted for 31.3 percent of all those classified as the working poor.

Persons employed in managerial and professional specialty occupations were least likely to be classified as working poor (1.4 percent).  

These data were collected in the 2002 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The above figures are for individuals who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force in 2001, but whose incomes fell below the official poverty level. For more information see A Profile of the Working Poor, 2001 (PDF 327K).

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