BRITTANI LUSK - Daily Herald | Posted: Thursday, July 5, 2007 11:00 pm
According to the numbers, it's a great time to find a job in Utah. The state's 2.5 percent unemployment rate is slightly more than half that of the national average.
However, Utah's poverty rate is increasing, according to one analysis, although not everyone agrees with that finding.
According to the Community Action Partnership Association, Utah's poverty rate is 10.2 percent, up from 9.4 percent in 2000.
In Utah County, the poverty rate is higher: 12.2 percent; it is still below the national average of 13.3 percent.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a family of four is considered poor if it has an income of $20,650 or less.
Ruby Ramkissoon of Provo is working part time and going to school full time while her husband looks for a job. The couple have five children.
Ramkissoon said she has asked for help, and that has been hard.
"It's been really humbling in a big way," she said.
Her challenges include dealing with discrimination, finding a house to rent for her family of sons and affording health insurance.
Myla Dutton, executive director of Community Action Services in Provo, which operates the food bank, said many of the people her organization works with are like Ramkissoon.
"We've seen that the people that we serve typically are working. They're just making low wages," Dutton said. Higher health care and housing costs also share the blame.
According to the report, most of those in poverty were white, but minorities were disproportionately poor.
Dutton said many of Utah County's poor were families. There are 4,000 two-parent families with children living in poverty in Utah County. The next group was single mothers, followed by the elderly.
Ramkissoon said the working poor aren't in their situation because they are lazy.
"You're not necessarily poor because of choice," she said. "It's not because you just want to sit home on your butt and do nothing."
Some say, however, that wages have kept up with costs, that the 1 percent increase over five years isn't significant and that Medicaid enrollment is down.
James Robson, an economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services, said wages have kept up with the Consumer Price Index.
"Wages in Utah probably have, on average, kept up with inflation in the last year," he said.
From 2005-2006, the average annual earnings of non-farm workers grew by 5.4 percent and were forecasted to keep growing from 2006-2007.
The Consumer Price Index grew 3.2 percent from 2005-2006 and is forecasted to grow 2.4 percent from 2006-2007.
Robson said the change from 9.4 percent to 10.2 percent wasn't statistically significant.
Also, fewer people are enrolling in Medicaid. In June of 2006, 174,800 Utahns were enrolled. In June 2007, the number had decreased to 159,849.
Kolbi Young, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department, said the number of enrollees decreased because the economy was getting better.
Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at blusk@heraldextra.com.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.