Jobs up, poverty down in Wisconsin, UW researchers say

via The Wisconsin State Journal by 

• BILL NOVAK bnovak@madison.com

  Bill Novak | Wisconsin State Journal

The annual Wisconsin Poverty Measure study from the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison showed a jobs increase of 70,000 between January 2014 and November 2015 led to a “modest but statistically significant reduction in poverty.”

Statewide poverty dropped below 10 percent from 2014 to 2015, with the 9.7 percent rate the lowest since the Wisconsin Poverty Measure began in 2008.

Researchers said child poverty, using WPM, dropped to 10 percent, a third lower than the official child-poverty measure rate of 15.4 percent from the Census Bureau.

Elderly poverty also dropped from 8.3 percent to 7.8 percent, the WPM study said.

The complete study here > Wisconsin Poverty Report: The Recovery from the Great Recession Lowers Poverty Rates in 2015