September 9, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Young adults most likely to be
among the working poor
Younger workers are the most
vulnerable to being poor. In 1997, workers under the age of 25 had poverty rates about
twice the overall rate.
[Chart data—TXT]
Among workers age 16 to 19 years, 11.6 percent lived below
the poverty level in 1997. For workers age 20 to 24, the poverty rate was about the same:
11.5 percent. These rates were approximately twice the average of 5.7 percent for all
workers.
Poverty rates of workers generally declined with age. The biggest drop was between the
20-to 24-year-olds and the 25-to 34-year-olds. Workers 65 and older had the lowest poverty
rate of all, at 2.7 percent.
These data on poverty rates are from the Current
Population Survey. The above figures are for individuals who spent at least 27 weeks
in the labor force in 1997. Find out more in "A Profile of the Working Poor,
1997," BLS Report 936.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »
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