The statistic discussed in the article seems rather meaningless. It requires that at some point you got some sort of public assistance, including unemployment checks, or that you were out of work as an adult totaling at least one year during your whole life. I've been out of work for about a year, 3 periods of about 4 months in between jobs. This is from my early 20's to my mid 40's. I'm rather affluent now, yet I qualify. Big deal.
Don't forget 'earning below 150% of the poverty line'. Also, the way I read it the joblessness was periodic* over a year not a cumulative year of joblessness. Regardless, I likewise have qualified during my lifetime.
*No mention of how they defined 'periodic'
That said I generally agree that the definition is quite broad. Getting an unemployment check? There are no mentions of any qualifications during schooling or when living at home. While they mention specific age groups later any references to the group at large only uses the noun 'adults'. So do 18 year olds living at home going to high school count?
I am curious about the date range selection. Why stop at 2009? Looks like most of the census poverty data goes through 2011. I also question basing projections on 2009 data as unemployment has dropped about 2.5% since their data end date.
Something else to consider with the date range selection is the GDP decline of this recession was the greatest since 1945 so its not suprising that 'lifetime economic insecurity' would be higher for this period than recession periods that experienced 1/2 the GDP decline. New AP headline: "Economic insecurity greatest during the Great Depression!"
(It really annoys me that they don't show their data or define many of their variables. "Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press" so just believe us ok?)
My first question was "how are they defining poverty?".
"Economic insecurity"
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