Latest Reports from the Center on Labor, Human Services & Population

The case for expanding the EITC for workers without qualifying children is compelling, as the current EITC provides little help to this group. We argue that the EITC for these workers should: - provide these workers with a strong incentive to increase work effort;  - provide a significant subsidy to low-earning workers working near a full-time work level; - begin phasing out only after an individual is working at a level at least equivalent to full-time minimum wage work; - apply to both prime-age and younger workers; and - be effectively coordinated with the Making Work Pay Credit.

This fact sheet is the first in a series of publications on children of immigrants in the United States that updates the Urban Institute's May 2006 fact sheet that described the circumstances of these children in the early 2000s. The current fact sheet examines immigration trends and finds that children of immigrants are the fastest growing segment of the nation's children population - while the number of children of natives increased by 2.1 million between 1990 and 2007, children of immigrants grew by 8.1 million accounting for 77 percent of the growth of the U.S. children population during this time.

Data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances show a disturbing reality. Even prior to the current recession, many families did not have enough assets to see them through a modest spell of unemployment or another financial emergency. In 2007, nearly one in three U.S. families were liquid asset poor. Low-income, young, and nonemployed families are more vulnerable to economic emergencies. For example, two-thirds (68 percent) of bottom income quintile families and 47 percent of second income quintile families are liquid asset poor, while such shortfalls affect only 1 percent of top income quintile families.

This paper reviews the literature on poverty dynamics in the United States. It surveys the most prevalent data, theories, and methods used to answer three key questions: How likely are people to enter, exit, and reenter poverty? How long do people remain in poverty? And what events are associated with entering and exiting poverty? The paper then analyzes the combined findings of the literature, discussing overarching patterns of poverty dynamics, differences among demographic groups, and how poverty probabilities, duration, and events have changed over time. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings and avenues for future research.

With the generous support of the William S. Abell Foundation, the Urban Institute (UI) surveyed District permanent supportive housing (PSH) agencies and specific PSH projects, asking their staff to detail current projects and future ambitions. This research brief is an analysis of the stock of PSH in the District as of early fall 2008, demographic information on PSH tenants at that time, and a look at how the District might move forward toward fulfilling its commitment to create 2,500 new units of PSH and ultimately eliminating chronic homelessness.

This series examines youth vulnerability and risk-taking behaviors on several outcomes for young adults, using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort. Notable results suggest youth follow one of four patterns in connecting to the labor market and school in the transition to adulthood: consistently-connected, later-connected, initially-connected, or never-connected. Second generation Latinos make a fairly smooth transition to young adulthood, but are less likely to engage in post-secondary schooling than whites. Youth from low-income families, distressed neighborhoods, and youth with poor mental health engage in relatively higher levels of adolescent risk behaviors and have relatively lower earnings and levels of connectedness in early adulthood.

To pay for college, many low- and moderate-income students and their families rely on financial aid and savings. But how students and families save—and in whose name—affects both the tax consequences and the impact of savings on financial aid. Not saving in a tax-preferred account can raise the out-of-pocket costs of college by thousands of dollars. Alternately, saving for college can result in tax penalties if families do not use tax-preferred savings for education.

This report summarizes the roundtable "Infants and Toddlers in State and Federal Budgets: Yesterday's Choices, Today's Decisions, Tomorrow's Options" conducted by the Urban Institute, with support from the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, on March 30, 2009. The roundtable's focus grew out of the widely perceived mismatch between sharply limited public investments on infants and toddlers and an accumulated body of research demonstrating the significance of the earliest years of life. We describe the group's diverse perspectives and wide-ranging discussion of strategies to address this mismatch.

The study involved interviews with families from Nigeria and Pakistan living on Chicago's North Side to examine their experiences and perspectives around accessing Illinois' universal preschool program, Preschool for All (PFA). Researchers conducted focus groups with parents and spoke with PFA providers for their perspective on issues families raised. The findings suggest Nigerian and Pakistani families can face numerous barriers accessing Preschool for All. While some barriers are unique to their immigration status, others are experienced by other low-income and vulnerable families as well. The report concludes with implications for policy and recommendations for future research.

This paper examines data on unemployment compensation programs across a sample of 150 large countries that account for 99 percent of the world's population. It documents recipiency rates and replacement rates in the 66 countries with UC programs. It makes comparisons of the degree of earnings loss protection in countries arranged by geographic area and by income level. Overall it finds that UC replaces 11.7 percent of the earnings losses caused by unemployment.