CALIFORNIA BUSINESS MINUTE
Reducing Poverty in CA
09-10-08
Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.
It may seem hard to image, but new information from the Census Bureaus annual
American Community Survey illsutrates that poverty levels across California declined
significantly during the first seven years of the decade, an economic period that while
it will be remembered as one of the largest economic expansions in the states history,
was impacted by the dot.com creash, the deregulation of the electrical transmission
industry and subsequent state budget fiasco and subsequent recall of a governor the
national slowdown in 2003, the state continued to grow.
For example, Los Angeles County's poverty rate dropped notably between 2000 and 2007,
the data showed, with the percentage of residents living below the federal poverty level falling
from 17.9% in 2000 to 14.7% last year. Similar declines occurred in Orange, Riverside, San
Bernardino and Ventura counties. By contrast, the national poverty rate rose slightly during
the same period.
Median household incomes have risen in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
But in the region's two more affluent counties, Ventura and Orange, median incomes declined
when adjusted for inflation. The median income in Ventura and Orange counties -- the point at
which half of households earn more and half earn less -- is about $73,000, while in the other
counties the figure is about a third lower.
I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.
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