Susan Brower, Twin Cities Compass
What disparity-related trends have been emerging since the recession began?
We are still waiting for the release of data that will help us understand the effects of the recession locally, since most of the recent data we have show disparities that existed before the recession began. For example, we can see that female-headed, single-parent families went into the recession in a precarious position. These families had much lower household incomes, higher rates of poverty, and were more likely to be housing cost-burdened than married-couple families in 2007.
Though we can't look at the local impacts of the economic downturn just yet, we can look to the national trends to give us some clues about what might be happening locally. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, single mothers in the U.S. experienced larger declines in employment between 2007 and 2008 than did their married counterparts. Since the recession began, the proportion of employed women in married-couple families actually increased slightly. Compared to single-parent families, married-couple families are at an advantage during periods of high unemployment due to the simple fact that they have twice as many potential earners to navigate the shifting employment landscape, while managing the demands and costs of caring for children. We know that single-parent families went into the recession at a disadvantage. Judging from the national trend, it appears their economic stability may have been disproportionately impacted as well.
What do you think these trends mean for the future?
Unfortunately, it probably will not be long until we see the unemployment trends impacting other life domains that are strongly related to income, such as the areas of health and housing, to give a couple of examples. For many, the loss of a job means the loss of health care coverage since nearly 70 percent of all residents with health care insurance have coverage through their employers. Without insurance (or with a disruption in coverage) families may be less likely to seek preventative care, which in turn could lead to poorer health outcomes. Similarly, the loss of a job may cause more households to become increasingly housing cost-burdened. Over the next several months we will be closely monitoring these and other trends to see how the recession is impacting our region's disadvantaged populations.
Susan Brower is a research associate on the Compass project. She specializes in demography, survey research and quantitative analysis. Susan holds a B.A. in Social Work from St. Olaf College, a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and a Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan.