The Real Effect of Lost Manufacturing Jobs

A Chicago Tribune article today discussed a woman who is living in extreme poverty. Here's the link Chicago_Tribune.

Some interesting paragraphs in the article are worth quoting here:

Illinois also leads the region in a grim subset of that category: the group of nearly 724,000 residents, including Sirko and her children, trapped in what experts call "deep poverty."

Specifically, deep poverty means a family of four is living on $9,675 or less per year. For the past year, Sirko's income--donations from friends and family, plus a few hundred dollars made through treasure hunting--has been about $3,000, not including food stamps and the recent arrival of welfare.

Such dire straits often get overshadowed amid the million-dollar homes and upscale malls of Chicago's five collar counties, though poverty is increasing there too, with nearly 200,000 people counted as poor, according to 2003 Census figures. The state's surge in poverty, as documented in the bipartisan Heartland Alliance's 2006 Report on Illinois Poverty, can be traced to a combination of factors: the loss of more than 225,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 15 years, soaring housing costs and cuts in social services due to the state budget crisis of the past several years.

It's worth your time to read this as the woman featured in the article lost her good paying job when her job left Illinois. The article quotes some very interesting statistics.