Press Release: Pa.'s Poverty Rate Holds Steady Thanks to Unemployment Comp System

By MB -
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --National poverty rates rose significantly in 2009, climbing to 14.3% from 13.2% in 2008, new Census Bureau data show.

In Pennsylvania, poverty rates remained essentially unchanged, going from 10.8% in 2006-07 to 11% in 2008-09. (The Census Bureau averages two years of survey data in order to improve the reliability of the state-level estimates.)

The poverty rate would have risen even further nationally and in Pennsylvania in 2009, had it not been for unemployment compensation extensions and other key provisions of the 2009 American Recovery Act that have helped middle-class and low-income families stay afloat.

Read the whole press release (including a quote from Carol Goertzel)!

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