Taking the total group "dissected" in that table, the three largest occupational categories of the employed poor family heads were operatives (nearly 20 percent); service workers (nearly 18 percent); and laborers (slightly more than 16 percent) totaling 54 percent of all the poor family heads in the labor force.

When we add the unemployed to this list, the percentage adds up to 62 percent—that is, more than three-fifths (about 2 million) of all the labor force members who are heads of poor families are either operatives, service workers, laborers, or unemployed.

But these low-level occupations (and unemployment situations) are not distributed evenly among the labor force poor. While more than three-fifths of the total group are in these categories, less than one-half of the male white family heads (they are still the biggest single group as far as size goes-about 900,000) are in these low-level jobs or are unemployed. Nearly 70 percent of female heads of white families (265,000), 75 percent of male nonwhites (549,000), and more than 80 percent of female nonwhites (258,000) are either operatives, service workers, laborers, or unemployed.

Industries of the Working Poor

Poverty is not strictly a matter of occupation, region, or family status; it is also related to the type of industry in which a breadwinner is employed. Unfortunately, the official government data pertaining to the characteristics of those below the accepted poverty line (based on income, location, and family size) do not report the industry distribution of the poor. However, in a recent article by Barry Bluestone,1 some of the industries having at least 40 percent of their employees earning below a relatively low wage for all nonsupervisory employees -stipulated at $2.25 per hour or less by Bluestone-are listed as shown in Table III.

"Low-Wage Industries and the Working Poor," Poverty and Human Resources Abstract, Vol. III, No. 2 (March-April 1968).

Table III

Industries in Which 40 Percent or More of Workers
Earned Less Than $2.25 per Hour

Source: Industry Wage Surveys, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, 1962-66.

It should be kept in mind, when assessing these several million workers employed at less than $2.25 per hour, that:

1. The list is not exhaustive; it refers only to selected industries, and within them, just the ones in which at least 40 percent of the employees earned less than the cited hourly wage.

2. There is no indication in the data as to number of weeks worked full time per year; in other words, it would be misleading to assume that we are talking in every instance about an annual wage income of $4,500 ($2.25 x 2,000 hours).

3. On the other hand, the data in the table do not tell us whether or not other members of the workers' families are also employed, and thus the extent to which total family income (relative to region and size of family) is above or below the poverty line.

Nevertheless, it is clear that certain industries have substantial numbers of men and women whose earned incomes keep them below the level of a decent income, and who may therefore be considered as underemployed. In hospitals, nursing homes, laundries, and restaurants alone we can be sure that most of their 2 million or so workers earning less than $2.25 are in this category.

Location of Poor Workers

In 1964, among all production workers in manufacturing industries (numbering 12.6 million), 47 percent earned less than $2.20 per hour. But in the South 71 percent were below this figure; 49 percent in the Northeast; 36 percent in the North Central region; and only 26 percent in the West.

Thirty-five percent of all production workers earning less than $2.20 lived in the South. However, if we concentrate only on workers earning less than $1.60 per hour in 1964, we find that the South had 47 percent of them. (Keep in mind also that 63 percent of the nation's poor rural families are in the South.)

Of these lower wage production workers earning under $1.60 per hour in 1964, the Northeast region contained 30 percent; the North Central region, 19 percent; and the West, only 4 percent.2

Among poor families with a head working even year round on a full-time basis, more than one-half of all of them are in the South (although that region has less than 30 percent of all families whose heads have year-round full-time jobs). Among unrelated individuals working year round full time, the South has 31 percent of the poverty-income jobs, but less than one-fourth of all of the country's year-round full-time jobs occupied by unrelated individuals. The Northeast region also is overrepresented among poor unrelated individuals. Table IV gives regional comparisons.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstracts of the United States, 1967, Table 336, p. 238.

Source: Derived from Tables 2 and 5 in "More About the Poor in 1964," by
Mollie Orshansky, Social Security Bulletin, May 1966.

As might be expected, the small towns and rural areas of America have a
disproportionate number of workers who are heads of poor families (see
Table V). This is indicated by the fact, for example, that more than one-half
of the poor families with working heads are in areas with less than 50,000
population (areas outside SMSA's), while for all families with working heads,
only one-third are in such areas.

Source: Bureau of the Census, unpublished data from 1966 survey, prepared by H. L. Sheppard.

Furthermore, three-fifths of all poor families with two or more workers in them are in these smaller and rural areas of the country.

Central Cities

According to some recent OEO preliminary estimates, the central cities of our country contain nearly 1.3 million jobseeking or underemployed poor persons of all ages (half of whom are white) who are in one of the following categories:

aged 16-21;

member of an ethnic minority;
physically handicapped; or

a school dropout before completing high school.

The distribution of these persons by age group is as follows: