Poor Economy and life choices = ?

Poverty has iron grip on San Bernardino County

Wesley G. Hughes, Staff Writer
10/20/2009

Consider a 57 percent increase in unemployment, a 54.2 percent increase in people on food stamps and a 34.9 percent increase in the number of people seeking employment and counseling.
Those are the grim numbers for San Bernardino County for a single year from August 2008 to August 2009. Someone is unemployed in one of every five homes in the county.
The wonks in Washington have finally realized that poverty is a lot worse than they thought.
A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government's official figure.
The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week. That's higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original government formula.

The prevalence of poverty is something the people of San Bernardino County have known for quite a while.
Throughout the county, people face day-to-day uncertainty. Even those with jobs face the prospect of furloughs, layoffs and underemployment.
"People in that situation aren't going to go out and spend," said Paul Herrera, spokesman for the county Economic Development Agency.
"Confidence is a critical, critical piece of getting the county back on track," he said.
Two young women at the Meadowbrook Apartments on West 2nd Street in San Bernardino drew similar pictures of the plight of the poor.

Nicole Calleros, 24, is a resident at Meadowbrook and Muminah Nolley, 22, was applying for residence. Each is the mother of a boy and a girl.
Calleros receives $310 a month from Aid to Families with Dependent Children, her only income. She receives food stamps and pays rent of $64 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
Her only employment has been with the California Conservation Corps from 2004 to 2006, where she learned firefighting and other skills.
The father of Jaenisa, 2, and Javata, 5, is not with the family, and helps out only on occassion.
Her brighter outlook is that she is in her final semester at San Bernardino Valley College, where she is studying welding technology.

She says she'll move to Las Vegas where there is more work available. Welders make from $18 to $42 an hour depending on their skill level, she said. She's training to be an inspector, a job that would pay her even more.
Nolley moved to San Bernardino from Charlotte, N.C., where she left some of her 26 brothers and sisters. Some are actually half-brothers and half-sisters.
"I don't consider them half," she said with a grin.
AFDC is also her only source of income. She receives $661 plus food stamps. She won't learn the amount of her rent until she turns in her application to Meadowbrook.
Her children, Asia, 7, a girl, and Amonta, 5, a boy, were both born at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, she said.
Nolley had a job doing in-home care for a woman in Riverside, but that ended when the woman moved away.
She's also hoping for a brighter future. She passed a test for state correctional officer and is scheduled to begin four months training in December. The pay will be $4,500 a month, she said.
But until then, she said it's tough getting by on so little income.
"Paying bills and not being able to go out and get what you want; the kids don't understand," she said.

Nevada Jobless Rate Rises to 13.3 Percent in Sept.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 19, 2009

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Roughly 190,700 Nevada residents were looking for work in September as the statewide unemployment rate reached a new record of 13.3 percent, officials said Monday.

The rate though was up only 0.1 percentage point compared with the August rate reported by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

William Anderson, chief economist for the department, said that while the erosion of Nevada's job market eased last month, it was not a sign that the recession was any less severe for the Silver State.

''It is best not to get overly optimistic based upon information for just one month,'' Anderson said.

The state rate established another record for Nevada dating to 1976. The report said Nevada's unemployment rate was 3.5 percentage points higher than the national rate of 9.8 percent in September.

The nationwide downturn has claimed 7.2 million jobs since December 2007, and analysts estimate 750,000 more jobs could disappear in the next six months.

The U.S. Department of Labor says unemployment nationwide increases to 17 percent if it includes people who have stopped looking for work or who work part time but want a full-time job.

Unemployment in Nevada was 7.3 percent in September 2008.

''The bottom line is that once the economy does begin to recover, which it will, there is much ground to be made up,'' Anderson said.

The jobless rate in the Las Vegas area was 13.9 percent, up from 13.5 percent in August and 7.7 percent last September.

Unemployment was 13.1 percent in and around Reno, and 12.8 percent in Carson City. The state does not seasonally adjust city numbers.

Anderson said job losses have hurt construction workers more than any other industry, with 50,000 jobs lost since 2007. The report said 48,000 construction jobs were added between 1997 and 2007, with resort work happening on the Las Vegas Strip and new home construction as the area grew. Fewer than 70,000 people were employed in construction last month, 3,200 less than in August and 23,100 less than in September last year.

The report said there were 18,400 fewer leisure and hospitality jobs in Nevada during September than during the same month a year ago, with more than 250,000 people employed in the state's largest industry. The report said the industry employed 1,100 fewer people in September than in August.