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Illinois Poverty in 2008
Based on US Census poverty guidelines, over 1.5 million Illinoisans are impoverished (44% of them in extreme poverty), or 12.2% of the population. Another 16% are at risk, a potential 28.2% total, or over 3.5 million people, and those numbers are conservative. Among them are over half a million children and one-third of the state's Blacks, another half million.
Given the woefully out-of-date federal $22,000 threshold for a family of four, the true problem is far greater, likely double the official numbers or higher, showing dire Illinois conditions that reflect the state of the nation - worsening, not improving.
Other Heartland figures show:
-- nearly one million Illinoisans unemployed or underemployed, and many more have stopped looking altogether;
-- in the last decade, offshoring cost thousands of high-paying manufacturing and other jobs, replaced with lower-paying service ones; from 2000 - 2008 (before the economic downturn's full impact), 168,500 service jobs replaced 203,000 manufacturing ones, a trend very much evident nationwide;
-- nearly one in five working age Illinoisans live in extreme poverty;
-- workers with less than a high school diploma are nearly four times more likely to be unemployed; 54% of working age adults in extreme poverty have a high school degree or less;
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