County hit with sharp rise in level of poverty
Jump in unemployment to blame, analysts say
By Lori Weisberg
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
Poverty in San Diego County rose last year to its highest level this decade, fresh evidence of the financial toll the county’s prolonged recession and heavy job losses are taking on the region’s neediest households.
In all, nearly 367,000 individuals were living in poverty — almost 46,000 more than a year earlier, according to data released this week by the Census Bureau.
That translates into a poverty rate of 12.6 percent, a significant increase over 2007, when the rate was a little more than 11 percent. At the beginning of the decade, the poverty level was nearly the same as last year, standing at 12.4 percent, according to the 2000 census..