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“I’m not sure. When I spoke to Cassidy yesterday he said Harrisonburg, but didn’t say whether he meant the city (45k people) or the greater Harrisonburg area (120k people)”

Usually in these types of numbers, folks are talking about the Harrisonburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the county.

The study TV3 was talking about came from not only the Commonwealth Institute, but also Voices for Virginia’s Children. The AP sent over a story earlier this week, but we got something last week from the Virginia News Connection. Here’s what they suggested we read:

A study linking current unemployment with future poverty finds a dramatic increase in poverty rates as the recession deepens in Virginia. It also suggests one way to combat long-term poverty is better support for the recently unemployed.

As unemployment worsens in Virginia, there will be a significant increase in the number of children living in poverty – according to a study conducted by The Commonwealth Institute and Voices for Virginia’s Children. For the first time, the study connected current unemployment rates to future poverty. It found that if unemployment nationwide is 8 percent, as many as 169-thousand additional Virginians will slip into poverty – including 55-thousand children. Michael Cassidy is the executive director of The Commonwealth Institute. He says that Virginia can do quite a bit to support the unemployed and keep families out of poverty.

“We could take action to expand the level of benefits that are offered and provide a greater number of workers to be covered by the system, so that people who lose their jobs will actually have a safety net there to help them.”

Cassidy adds that in 2007 only 27 percent of unemployed Virginians even collected unemployment benefits. He says lawmakers should extend unemployment benefits to people seeking part-time employment. The poverty threshold for a family of four in Virginia is a yearly income of just over $21-thousand dollars.

Hope this helps clarify and not further confuse the story.

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Indeed, poverty rates will rise as unemployment does, and will hit children under 5 even harder. Now to figure out how badly Channel 3 botched up their story on all this.

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The Commonwealth Institute report refers heavily to children.

As unemployment worsens, we predict a significant increase in the number of Virginians living in poverty. Since the child poverty rate is higher than the overall rate, the impact of this increase will fall disproportionately on Virginia’s children. Rising unemployment could push an additional 122,000 to 218,000 Virginians into poverty this year, with children accounting for between 44,000 and 73,000 of this increase.

I see now that I should have included that in my post. Apologies for any confusion.

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Reneee. To get lots of poverty with people working you have to have lots of min wage jobs. But who is the largest employer in both the city and the larger area? JMU. They do not pay min wage jobs. There is simply no way you are going to have an area like Harrisonburg (or with the county included) having a below state average unemployment rate, but a poverty rate that is off the scale high and far above the statewide rate.

Let me note that we have not seen in the US overall a rate as high as claimed in this silly story since the early 1960s. The highest the US poverty rate has ever been since then has not exceeded 15%. And Harrisonburg is supposed to be at 26.7%???

I have a suggestion what may be going on here. Poverty rates for children in the US under age 5 are at around 25%. Perhaps that is what the number is.

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“In 2007…the threshold for a family group of four, including two children, was US$21,027″

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_line

So, 2 parents working full time at the current minimum wage would just be above that line.

I still would like to see the stats the story is based on.

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