The number of working Americans earning so little they lived in poverty reached 7.2 percent of the labour force in 2010, the highest level in at least two decades, the US government said on Friday. The Bureau of Labour Statistics counted 7.6 percent of women among the working poor, compared to 6.7 percent of men. In 2009, the working poor rate was 7 percent.
Education made a huge difference. Among workers who had not graduated from high school, 21.4 percent lived below the official poverty line against only 2.1 percent of those with a university degree. The highest rate was amongst the unemployed looking for work during the year at 35.1 percent. The official poverty line in 2010 was an annual income of $10,830 for a single person and $22,050 for a family of four. Overall, the United States had 46.2 million people living in poverty that year, or 15.1 percent of the population o f all ages. The working poor totalled 10.5 million.
The Bureau of Labour Statistics conducted a special survey in 2011 which it is used to calculate the figures, based on those who were in the labour force for at least 27 weeks either working or looking for work. The rate for working poor was 5.5 percent in 1987, the furthest back that the BLS included in its report, and in 1999 it fell below 5 percent.
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