Some highlights from the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis review of 2019 ACS data:
* Oregon’s median income now stands 2 percent higher than the U.S.
* Oregon’s 11.4 percent poverty rate in 2019 is lower than the nation’s 12.3 percent.
* The racial poverty gap is now the smallest on record in Oregon
See the full post for graphs and further details.
Several new stories in the media and an academic paper provide rationale for examining child care costs for our (1) Oregon Poverty Measure and (2) Paid parental leave projects.
Hotz, V. J., & Wiswall, M. (2019). Child Care and Child Care Policy: Existing Policies, Their Effects, and Reforms. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 686(1), 310–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219884078
Update [October 15, 2020]: This link is now longer valid. I assume the story has been removed.
Recent post by Oregon Employment Department counters commonly held notion that tourism replaced the timber industry in Bend and surrounding area.
A new research report from the Carsey School of Public Policy uses the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to examine five government programs combined— Social Security, disability benefits, federal and state cash assistance, the EITC, and SNAP. The report finds that these programs keep 11.5 percent of rural and 7.6 percent of urban residents out of poverty.
In the fall 2018, Governor Kate Brown’s office released a report titled The Children’s Agenda: Pathways Out of Poverty for Children to Achieve their Full Potential. The core components of this agenda include:
1. Ending child homelessness
2. Ensure 100 percent healthcare coverage
3. Integrate substance abuse and behavioral health
4. Increase quality of affordable childcare
5. Provide preschool for kids in poverty
6. Lower class sizes and implement longer school years
7. Training and apprenticeships for parents
8. Finalize comprehensive child welfare system based on positive human development