the Garden State Alliance for a New Economy will distribute a report to highlight the struggles of Jersey City's growing working poor population on Tuesday, September 22, 2009. Tuesday's study, which is based on newly-released data from the Census Bureau, will offer a local snapshot of how poverty is pervading the lives of working residents on the "Gold Coast."
While Jersey City's 2007 unemployment rate was only 2% above the state's rate, its poverty rate was 6% higher than the state's average. This data demonstrates that although Jersey City and New Jersey shared comparable employment rates in 2007, Jersey City residents experienced greater difficulties combating poverty.
Our study comes on the heels of bleak national-level data just released from 2008. Analysts of this national data found that 2008 marked the largest one-year decrease in the U.S. median income since 1967 and the largest one-year increase in the U.S. poverty rate since 1991. Tuesday's release will analyze the extent to which these sobering national trends of 2008 generated even tougher economic obstacles and consequences for Jersey City's hard-working residents.
