Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 49

CHAPTER 1
Figure 1.2 Employment Among Single Mothers Increased Substantially During the Early Years of

Welfare Reform, But Many of Those Early Gains Have Been Lost

100%

Some college or more

80

High school only

60
40

Less than high school
54%

54%

20
0

’91 ’92 ’93 ’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2012).

Another reason low-income single mothers did well in the late 1990s is that full employment mitigates the effects of discrimination in the labor market. Anecdotal evidence indicates that employers who admitted they would be hesitant to hire welfare recipients in a
labor market that was not as tight hired them anyway—and found them to be just as capable
as other workers.13 Full employment, with its pressure not to discriminate, meant large
gains for African Americans as well. During the late 1990s, the median income of African
American families grew faster than at any other point, including during the Civil Rights
era.14
The extraordinary progress that low-income families
“Those who stand to
achieved during the late 1990s did not last when the economy
gain the most from
slid into a recession from March 2001 until November of that
a full-employment
same year. This recession was mild compared to the Great
economy are lowRecession that lasted from December 2007 through June
wage workers, but the
2009. However, the recovery following the 2001 recession
benefits would extend
did not produce another period of low unemployment. It
to everyone.”
was nearly two years into the recovery before the economy
achieved drops in unemployment for two months in a row.15
The economy posted virtually identical rates of productivity growth from 1995-2000 and
2001-2006.16 During the earlier period, productivity gains were reflected in everyone’s paycheck. The later period was marked by the erosion of wages for everyone except the top
earners. The late 1990s were a period of broadly shared prosperity because there was full employment.

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? 2014 Hunger Report? 39

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