UNITED STATES CHILD POVERTY ON THE RISE - STUDY

According to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 49 million people in the United States lived in households struggling to find enough food to eat. Nearly 16 million are children, who are far more likely to have limited access to sufficient food than the general population. While 15.9% of Americans lived in food-insecure households, 21.6% of children had uncertain access to food.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data Monday on the unemployment rates in the 50 states and District of Columbia. The numbers changed very little in January, the period for the current report. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases from December, one state had an increase and six states had no change at all. Every one of the 50 states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases from January 2013. For perspective, the national jobless rate for the January was 6.6%.


The 10 states with the lowest unemployment rates in January were: North Dakota (2.6%), Nebraska (3.5%), South Dakota (3.6%), Utah (3.9%), Vermont (4.0%), Wyoming (4.3%), Iowa (4.3%), Hawaii (4.6%), Minnesota (4.7%) and Kansas (4.8%). The BLS points out that some of these numbers may not be statistically significant if viewed by month.

Several of the states are in the BLS West North Central geographic area, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. A usatoday.com extract.