The rate of child poverty in Lake County has doubled since 1999, according to data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a child advocacy group.
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From 2011 to 2013, 14.8 percent of children — or 27,087 children — in Lake County were living in poverty compared to 8.1 percent from 2005 to 2007 and 7.2 percent in 1999, according to the Baltimore-based foundation’s Kids Count Data Center.
Florencia Gutierrez, a senior research associate at the foundation, said this year’s research found that although the economy has added jobs since the Great Recession, the national child poverty rate of 23 percent remains higher than pre-recession rates.
“What we are seeing is jobs are being created, but they’re low-income jobs, and many of the time they don’t support basic expenses of a family,” Gutierrez said. “So even when you have both parents working full-time, many times wages they’re earning are not sufficient to take care of families’ basic needs.”
Lake County’s unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in June, below the national rate of 5.5 percent, according to data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Gutierrez noted that the loss of manufacturing jobs remains a significant piece of the economic problem.
Between January of 2000 and January of 2015, about one third of manufacturing jobs — or 297,900 jobs — were eliminated, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
“A lot of jobs disappeared and total areas were gone,” Gutierrez said. “Families don’t have the education or opportunity to access quality jobs with the availability of low-income, low-wage jobs that don’t really provide them enough to make ends meet.”
During that 15-year period, mining, construction, manufacturing, trade, transportation and utilities, and information sectors all experienced job losses while leisure and hospitality, which includes food services, realized an increase.
Industries that require college degrees and certification grew as well. Professional and business services, educational and health, leisure and hospitality, and government sectors added jobs, with education and health expanding its workforce by nearly 33 percent, according to the jobs data.
“In the current and future economy, a lot of jobs require at least a high school diploma,” Gutierrez said. “If an individual hasn’t finished high school or has a diploma and no other certificate, the degree of likelihood you’re going to be able to access a job that pays you a living wage to support your family is unlikely.”
The foundation’s data shows that nearly one-third of Lake County children lived in low-income households between 2011 and 2013.
Gutierrez said the foundation believes policies need to be enacted to help parents receive further education and training, so they can secure better paying jobs.
“We really believe we need to introduce policies that result in higher pay, flexible scheduling and unemployment benefits, policies that can really boost a family’s income and financial stability that parents have while allowing them to invest in their kids,” Gutierrez said.
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