One of every 10 children in North Carolina lived with a parent who has been unemployed this year, according to a study released Thursday by a Washington nonpartisan advocacy group.
The study by First Focus determined that 118,000 N.C. children lived with parents who were unemployed for six months or more this year. The statistic is up from 23,000, or one in 25 children, when the recession began in late 2007.
The state’s overall child poverty rate is among the highest in the country at 26 percent – up from 20 percent in 2006 – according to a study released in November by two nonprofits: the N.C. Institute of Medicine, and Action for Children N.C. The rate is 30.3 percent for newborn children to age 5.
By comparison, the national child poverty rate is at 22.5 percent.
“This report shows that North Carolina’s children continue to suffer from the recession, and sustained investments are needed to help reduce the negative impacts of a challenging economy on our children and families,” said Deborah Bryan, president and chief executive of Action for Children.
“Investments like tax credits for working families, Medicaid and other public-health insurance programs for children are essential to help protect the well-being of our children and youth in times of need.”
Angela Graham, a Winston-Salem resident who started applying for unemployment benefits Thursday, said she doesn’t want to be a face and a statistic for child poverty.
But being unemployed for more than a year has left her without transportation and the $200 to $300 a week she needs to pay for child care for her soon-to-be 3-year-old daughter, Mikeala.
Several economic studies have shown that finding child care and having dependable transportation are among the biggest hurdles facing the unemployed, particularly single mothers.
On Thursday, Graham started the online paperwork for unemployment benefits at the N.C. Division of Employment Securities’ Winston-Salem office.
After completing that task, she was en route to fill out similar paperwork for the Work First service offered by the N.C. Department of Social Services. That program offers financial assistance, such as for child care, for the unemployed as long as they are actively seeking work.
“I was able to work for the first year of Mikeala’s life because my employer allowed me to bring her to work,” Graham said. “Once she got more active, that wasn’t possible anymore.
“I tried for a year to find a job doing nursing or clerical work in the medical field because I did that for more than eight years, but that wasn’t happening.
“I’m now at a crisis point and barely surviving because the bills keep coming regardless if I have a job or not, and she (Mikeala) keeps growing and that’s not going to stop, either,” Graham said.
A U.S. Census Bureau report released Wednesday found that 15,089 children ages 5 to 17 attending Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools live in poverty, or 24 percent.
By comparison, the rate is 23.3 percent for the school-age category statewide, and 21 percent for Guilford County Schools.
Officials with the First Focus study said children living with parental unemployment and in poverty can lead to “both immediate and long-lasting damages that can harm a child’s growth and development.”
“Near-term effects include psychological stress and poorer academic performance, and even increased incidences of abuse and neglect. Lasting consequences include diminished career aspirations and earnings as an adult.”
The N.C. Institute of Medicine study determined that growing up in a family living in poverty or near poverty “negatively impacts a child’s health throughout his or her life because the conditions that shape health in childhood influence opportunities for health throughout life.”