Living Below the Line:
Economic
Insecurity
and America's Families
As 25 million Americans and their families continue to struggle to find jobs or full-time work and many newly created jobs are in low-wage industries, a new report on family economic security shows that 45 percent of Americans are unable to cover their basic expenses. Based on a comprehensive analysis of economic and demographic data by Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), the new report finds many families are living without economic security even when household breadwinners are working. The findings suggest that federal budget cuts to programs like job training, career and technical education, unemployment insurance, and child care programs could compound the crisis facing American families. Click the links below to read WOW's full report, Living Below the Line: Economic Insecurity and America's Families and to view an infographic on key findings.
Living Below the Line: Economic Insecurity and America's Families
Living Below the Line Infographic
Press Release: New Report Shows Nearly Half of All Americans Are Living Without Economic Security
On November 22nd, the New American Foundation Asset Building Program hosted Poverty, Inequality, Mobility, Oh My! , a panel discussion with speakers from Wider Opportunities for Women, the Half in Ten Campaign, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, discussing how Americans are faring in the years since the Great Recession according to different measures. Follow this link to watch an interview with Matt Unrath, Director of the Family Economic Security Program with WOW, speak on economic security, current WOW data and measures on this issue, and policy ideas for making progress. Or click here to follow the full multi-media presentation given by Unrath at the event.
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Media
National
- 11-22-11, Economic Insecurity, The New York Times (Economix Blog)
- 11-22-11, Many Above US Poverty Line Struggle to Make Ends Meet, Reuters
- 11-22-11, Also covered in: News Daily, Yahoo! News
- 11-22-11, Nearly Half of All Households Lack Basic Economic Security: Study, The Huffington Post
- 11-22-11, Todo Más Caro, Noticiero Univision
- 11-22-11, Report: Nearly Half of Americans Living Without Economic Security, YubaNet.com
- 11-23-11, Report: 45% of Americans Live in Economic Insecurity, Newsmax.com
- 11-23-11, Also covered in: Moneynews.com
- 11-23-11, 60% of Single Women are Facing an Economic Gender Gap, Business Insider
- 11-23-11, Washington's Debt Panic and the Real Social Debt in America, In These Times
- 11-23-11, Nearly Half of Americans Struggling to Meet Financial Needs, Digital Journal
- 11-23-11, Donna Addkison: 'Nearly half of our nation's families cannot cover the costs of basic expenses even when they do have a job.', Investment Watch
- 11-23-11, New Report Shows Federal Budget Cuts, Growth of Low-Wage Work Threaten Economic Stability of Families, JobMouse
- 11-24-11, Wealth Distribution Worse Than We Thought, TaylorMarsh.com
Regional
- 11-24-11, Learning to Cast a Wider Survival Net, Our Weekly
- 11-24-11, New 'Poor' Could be Your Neighbor or You, Delaware News Journal
- 11-29-11, Also covered in: The Daily Journal
- 11-25-11, Giving and Giving Back, Grand Island Independent
- 11-30-11, The Near Poor: Many Educated, Employed Americans Struggle to Make Ends Meet, Deseret News
International
- 11-23-11, 'Chronically At Risk of Falling into Poverty': Nearly Half of all Americans Severely Struggling to Make Ends Meet, Daily Mail
- 11-23-11, Half of Americans Live Below the Poverty Line, The Voice of Russia
- 11-24-11, American Poverty: Nearly Half of the U.S. Lives in Economic Insecurity, International Business Times