West Virginians don't feel very secure about the economy, according to a new study from The Rockefeller Foundation and Yale University professor Jacob Hacker.
"Economic Insecurity Across the American States" was released Thursday. It's a state-by-state report of economic insecurity over the last generation and during the recent economic downturn. Using the groundbreaking Economic Security Index (ESI), the study reveals that West Virginia has one of the highest rates of economic insecurity in the nation, ranking 8th among states in terms of average level of ESI from 2008-2010.
The ESI is a comprehensive measure of economic security which tracks the proportion of Americans who see their "available household income" - their household income after paying for medical care and servicing their financial debts - decline by 25 percent or more from one year to the next and who lack an adequate financial safety net to replace this lost income.
The ESI was 22.1 in West Virginia in 2010, which corresponds to over 1 in 5 individuals experiencing large economic losses. The report found that Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia have the highest levels of insecurity, while New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Washington, and Minnesota were ranked as the most economically secure. The data also reveals that insecurity is higher among states in the South and West, and lower in the Midwest and Northeast.
"The Great Recession was both broad and deep. No part of the nation was spared," Jacob Hacker, Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University explained in a news release from The Rockefeller Foundation . "Nonetheless, some states were hit particularly hard, and West Virginia was among them. Even after the official end of the recession, a strikingly high 1 in 5 West Virginia residents experienced large economic losses in 2010." Historically, West Virginia has always experienced higher levels of insecurity than the nation as a whole. For the full report, click on this link.
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