By Sarah Bohn, Public Policy Institute of California, March 17, 2021
Thank you to the chair, Assemblymember Dr. Arambula, and committee members, for inviting me to speak with you today. I would like to make four main points based on my experience as a researcher studying long-term trends in the economy, poverty, and the social safety net.
First, the defining feature of the current recession is of economic bifurcation and disparities in opportunity. The unemployment rate stands at 9% but is substantially higher for Latino and Black workers, those without a college education, and among lower income families.
These disparities predate COVID-19. Before the pandemic, even with the strongest improvements for low income families we’d seen in 40 years, one-fifth of families were relying on $42,000 or less per year (for a family of four). Worse, Black and Latino families were especially likely to be in this group, struggling with poverty or near-poverty. This is the result of a four-decade trend in greater income inequality and poverty.
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