By HOPE YEN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Working-age America is the new face of poverty.
Counting adults 18-64 who were laid off in the recent recession as well as single twenty-somethings still looking for jobs, the new working-age poor represent nearly 3 out of 5 poor people – a switch from the early 1970s when children made up the main impoverished group.
While much of the shift in poverty is due to demographic changes – Americans are having fewer children than before – the now-weakened economy and limited government safety net for workers are heightening the effect.