June « 2011 « Policy Matters

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JUNE JOB WATCH

June 30, 2011

Filed under: Income & Working Families,Jobs,Mississippi Economic Recovery Resources — admin @ 10:19 AM

While a previous post focuses on many different measures of Mississippi’s economic growth after the recession, today’s post takes a closer look at employment in particular. Mississippi has gained 8,900 jobs since the state’s employment level reached a low point in February 2010. Incremental increases in private sector employment are a positive sign for the state’s workforce and economy. However, over the last year, slow job growth in the private sector paired with net job loss in the public sector has not produced jobs at the pace needed to replace jobs lost in the recession. The state still has 66,400 fewer jobs than it did when the recession began in late 2007.

To regain pre-recession levels of employment, Mississippi’s economy also needs to add jobs to meet the state’s population growth. The state’s population has growth 1.9% over the three and a half years. Combining jobs lost in the recession and the jobs needed to keep up with population growth means Mississippi’s would need to gain the 66,400 jobs lost in the recession and gain another 21,800 jobs keep up with the growing population, a total of 88,200 jobs according to the Economic Policy Institute.¹

The chart below illustrates Mississippi’s job deficit throughout the economic downturn.

Throughout the spring, storms and severe flooding negatively affected many communities across Mississippi and their local economies; however, rebuilding efforts should provide a lift to impacted regions. Mississippi has also benefitted from the growth of the national economy and projections are that economic growth will pick up slightly in the second half of 2011.²

Looking ahead, leaders should look to rebuild public investments in our state that declined during the recession. Strategies that build revenue and support greater investments in local communities contribute to a stronger economy and support job growth.

Author: Sarah Welker, Policy Analyst

¹Economic Policy Institute. Economic Analysis & Research Network. June JobWatch Data.
²Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. University Research Center. Mississippi’s Business. June 2011.

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Mississippi’s Economic Potential is Being Limited by Long-Standing Disparities

June 28, 2011

Filed under: Education,Making Mississippi Competitive: Solutions For Building Assets In Low-Wealth Communities,Mississippi Economic Recovery Resources,Poverty,Self-Sufficiency,Unemployment — admin @ 1:43 PM

On Sunday, June 26, The Clarion-Ledger ran a perspective piece penned by Bill Bynum, the CEO of the Hope Enterprise Corporation (the sponsoring entity of the Mississippi Economic Policy Center). The piece highlighted the changing demographics of Mississippi’s youth and the implications for future development. You can read “Capitalizing Diversity” and an additional editorial on investments needed in our region on the HOPE website.

Notably, for the first time since census records were being kept, Mississippi now has more children of color than white children. Chart 1 illustrates the breakout.

At the same time, most children of color are born into and grow up in a socio-economic environment that is vastly different from their white counterparts. Nearly one out of two African American children – the largest group of non-white children in Mississippi – lives in poverty. The chart below shows the disparities between black and white children’s poverty status in MS.

The disparities are particularly disturbing given the relationship between growing up in poverty and dropping out of school, receiving public assistance as an adult, incarceration, low-wage employment, and teen pregnancy. Also of concern, unless we act as a state to address the long standing disparities, the economic potential of the state is limited.

Moving forward, we must work together to create jobs by investing in the systems that foster employment – good schools, quality health care, smooth roads and safe communities. Policies that support entrepreneurship, homeownership and asset development also serve as important bricks on the road to prosperity.

Author: Ed Sivak, MEPC Director

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Connecting Women To NonTraditional Occupations

June 22, 2011

Filed under: Income & Working Families,Jobs,Self-Sufficiency — admin @ 8:30 AM

In Mississippi, 55% of households headed by women live below the self-sufficiency level compared to 32% of male headed households or 18% of households with couples.¹ The portion of female headed households below self-sufficiency rises to 68% for women who are also single parents and financially providing for their children.

In Mississippi, women make up 48% of the state’s labor force.² They work across all industries and at all levels of the wage scale. In many industries, median wages for women fall below men’s wages. However, many occupations that are not usually pursued by women pay quality wages and offer upward career mobility. In an effort to transition more women into employment with higher wages, many states, including Mississippi, are working to connect women to training in fields labeled as nontraditional.

What are some examples of these nontraditional occupations?
The table lists 15 examples of nontraditional occupations across the spectrum of educational attainment for women based on the percentage of women that work in that occupation nationally and details Mississippi wages and estimated annual job openings.

With women comprising almost half of the state’s labor force, strategies that aim to raise women’s wages also increase economic security of children and communities. They also create a more skilled workforce.

Making training accessible to working women frequently requires support with child care, transportation, flexible scheduling and additional support as they enter a field with a traditionally male workforce. Providing training with these supports as well as educational outreach to inform women about the broader spectrum of job opportunities available are both important goals for leaders in education and workforce development.

Want projections more specific to your area? Click here and then select the link for your community college district.

Author: Sarah Welker, Policy Analyst

¹Overlooked and Undercounted: Struggling to Make Ends Meet in Mississippi.

²Mississippi Department of Employment Security. http://mdes.ms.gov/Home/docs/LMI/Publications/Affirmative%20Action/AffAct2010.pdf

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Employment Is Not Enough To Keep Many Mississippi Families Out Of Poverty-Part 2

June 20, 2011

Filed under: Income & Working Families,Jobs,Self-Sufficiency — admin @ 9:18 AM

A previous post covers the rising number of working families in Mississippi living on income below the poverty level. Today, we take a closer look at how wages impact the number of working poor families in the state and consider how economic insecurity varies by family characteristics.

LOW WAGE JOBS:

The prevalence of low wage jobs contributes to the relatively high concentration of working poor families in the state. How is low wage job defined? Here we set a threshold as the hourly wage needed for a full-time worker to keep a family of four out of poverty, adjusted for the state cost of living. Because the cost of living is slightly lower in the state, Mississippi’s threshold is actually below most states at $9.54¹.

More than one in four working adults –27.7%– are in low wage jobs that pay below this level. Mississippi’s portion of low wage workers is among the nation’s highest and is the highest in the Mid South (see figure).

Often, workers in low wage opportunities may not receive health insurance through their employer and may work in entry level jobs that are more vulnerable to fluctuations in work hours and periods of unemployment. A lack of benefits, fluctuations in work hours or extends periods without work further challenge workers that are already facing economic insecurity.

WORKING POOR FAMILIES BY RACE AND GENDER:

Families headed by a minority adult are more likely to be low-income or poor than families headed by a white adult. One in every four working families headed by a minority parent is poor in Mississippi.² In 2009, there were 16,600 working poor families headed by white adults, compared to 34,600 working poor families headed by a non-white adult. Across races, single parents, particularly women, are more likely to live inadequate income than two parents households or those headed by men.³

In our next post, we’ll focus on occupations that are not traditionally pursued by women, and we will explore which of these nontraditional occupations offer opportunities for greater economic security for women across different levels of skill and educational attainment.

Author: Sarah Welker, Policy Analyst

¹Working Poor Families Project. 2011 State Data and Indicators.

²Overlook and Undercounted Making Ends Meet in Mississippi.

³Low wage figures developed by the Working Poor Families Project. For more information see: http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org.

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Employment Is Not Enough To Keep Many Mississippi Families Out Of Poverty

June 17, 2011

Filed under: Income & Working Families,Self-Sufficiency — admin @ 10:49 AM

Many families are working and still struggling financially to make ends meet. Similar to middle and high income families, many low-income families work hard and seek to balance responsibilities of work and family life. However, working poor and low-income families are more vulnerable to economic insecurity and have a harder time keeping up with the costs of housing, health care, child care, transportation and other basic needs and are often hindered from saving for their own future and their children’s.

In Mississippi, the portion of working poor families rose this decade according to the Working Poor Families Project (see figure). In 2009, the percentage of working families living on income below the Federal Poverty Level grew to 15.6%, equal to 51,265 families. The state’s portion of working families that are poor is significantly above the nation’s 9.5%.

Mississippi’s working families continue to need quality employment opportunities with higher wages, so that those adults that work hard can also build long-term economic security for themselves and their children– the next generation of Mississippi’s workers and business owners. With the portion of working families living in poverty growing, the challenge facing the state is threefold:

To raise the number of job opportunities with quality wages;
To provide on-the-job training and postsecondary pathways for the current workforce to gain skills to attain higher wage employment and;
To ensure a better future for all residents by raising revenue and strengthening investments that educate our children and create jobs.

Next week, Policy Matters takes a more in-depth look at factors that contribute to the number of families living on very low incomes.

Author: Sarah Welker, Policy Analyst
Source: Working Poor Families Project. Indicators and Data 2000-2010.

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Looking Beyond the Numbers: Mississippi Taxes as a Percent of Income

June 14, 2011

Filed under: Budget & Tax,Income & Working Families,Making Mississippi Competitive: Solutions For Building Assets In Low-Wealth Communities,Taxes — admin @ 8:56 AM

Last week we blogged about Mississippi taxes per capita (Mississippi ranks 46^th). Today, we’re going to look at another measure of taxes in the state—taxes as a percent of personal income. Mississippi ranks (27^th) in taxes collected as a percent of personal income, collecting 10.3%, according to data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

On one hand, Mississippi’s taxes as a percent of personal income are in the middle of the pack compared to the other states. On the other hand, it is important to look beyond the figure and consider how families pay taxes in Mississippi.

Data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy provide a look at how state and local taxes affect different income groups. As the table below shows, taxes as a percent of income in Mississippi play out much differently depending on your income group.

The lowest, second, and middle 20% of earners pay over 10% of their income in state and local taxes while the top 20% pay less. The top 1% of earners pays only 6.3% of their income in taxes.

Estimated Percent of Income Paid in State and Local Taxes by Income Quintile in 2007

By updating our revenue system, we can make college affordable, build roads and make Mississippi a safe place to live with a high quality of life in a manner that is equitable and sustainable.

Author: Sara Miller, Senior Policy Analyst
Source: MEPC analysis of data from the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States,” November 2009

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Mississippi Ranks 46th in State and Local Taxes Per Capita

June 3, 2011

Filed under: Budget & Tax — admin @ 8:33 AM

Mississippi ranks 46^th among states in the amount of state and local taxes collected per capita, collecting just over $3,000 per capita in FY 2008 according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The tax data point to low levels of tax collections relative to other states per capita and underscore the challenges that face Mississippi in maintaining the public structures that could ultimately improve the quality of life. The table below shows a comparison of state and local taxes collected per capita for Mississippi (red), the other 49 states (blue), and the US average (green).

State and Local Taxes Collected Per Capita by State in FY 2008

While this points to a challenge for Mississippi, there are ways to update the tax system to collect more revenue to fund our public structures while also making the system more equitable for working families. The state’s public structures provide the foundation of our economy, but have been threatened by year after year of budget cuts and underfunding. To ensure the state continues to recover from the recent recession, those public structures, like our education and infrastructure systems, need adequate funding.

Author: Sara Miller, Senior Policy Analyst
Source: MEPC analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau

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