October 27, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Rate of working poor in 2002

Of all persons who were in the labor force for 27 weeks or more, 5.3 percent were classified as working poor in 2002, up by 0.4 percentage point from the previous year.

Poverty rate, persons in the labor force for 27 weeks or more, 1992-2002
[Chart data—TXT]

In 2002, the poverty rate for those who worked 27 weeks was 0.6 percentage point above its recent low of 4.7 percent in 2000. However, the 2002 rate was still below the series peak of 6.7 percent which occurred in 1993.

These data were collected in the 2003 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey. For more information see A Profile of the Working Poor, 2002, Report 976 (PDF 105K).