Post-Recession, Millions More Kids Have an Unemployed Parent
Since the Great Recession, America has become a harder place to live for people with kids. And for the kids themselves.
A new report from the Census Bureau on America's families contains all sorts of interesting trivia (only 12% of opposite sex cohabiting couples both have bachelors degrees, versus 31% of same sex couples). But mostly, it drives home the point that the recession made life tougher on the most vulnerable members of society. Perhaps the starkest finding:
[The] number of households with children under 18 who had at least one unemployed parent rose by 33 percent, from 2.4 million to 3.2 million, between 2005 and 2011...
States experiencing a larger-than-average increase in families with an unemployed parent between 2005 and 2011 included Nevada (148 percent), Hawaii (95 percent), Florida (93 percent), Connecticut (65 percent), New Jersey (63 percent), California (61 percent), Colorado (56 percent) and North Carolina (54 percent).
Those figures are staggering. And all of this comes at the same time that more adult children are moving home for economic reasons. Something's gotta give.
Obligatory note about "I Have a Dream" speech anniversary goes here.
[The full report [PDF]. Image via Library of Congress/ Flickr]