Falling Coverage Rates: One Reason Government Surveys May Not Show a Rise in Poverty

In a NYT Economic blogpost Jason DeParle ponders the fact that government surveys are not showing much increase in poverty, even though we know there are many people experiencing long periods of unemployment and many forms of government assistance have been cut back. One possible explanation is that people in poverty and extreme poverty are less likely to be covered by the survey.

My colleague, John Schmitt, found clear evidence of a coverage problem in comparing employment rates as shown in ...