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Census data reflect recession effects
A census records file
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TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: Every year the Census Bureau gives us a snapshot of the American population. It's called the American Community Survey. Needless to say, the last year changed many things for many people.
Job losses, declining home values, bank scares -- they prompted us to spend less, save more, and make different decisions than we would've made just a couple of years ago. Marketplace's Amy Scott tells us some of the ways the recession is changing how we live.
AMY SCOTT: The Census Bureau surveyed three million households last year, as the Great Recession got underway.
Back then drivers were facing $4 a gallon at the pump. More people carpooled to work or took public transportation. Home ownership fell to its lowest level in six years. And more people over age 65 worked.
Mark Mather is a demographer at the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau.
MARK MATHER: Everybody's been affected by this recession in some way or another. And what we're seeing is some of the ways in which families are coping with this new economic reality.
Another sign of the new reality: after rising steadily for years, the percentage of foreign-born residents fell last year.
The Census Bureau's Scott Bogges says when the economy goes into a recession immigrants are among the first people to lose their jobs.
SCOTT BOGGES: That's the speculation. That economically the United States would be a less appealing destination for new migrants or a less appealing place to stay for foreign-born individuals who had come here seeking work.
The survey was conducted throughout 2008.
Margaret Simms at the Urban Institute points out that was before unemployment really took off.
MARGARET SIMMS: I would say you can see bad things coming, and we might expect that next year's data will reflect more fully the effects of the recession.
So this time next year we might have a better idea of where we are right now. By then, many economists expect the recession will be over, if it isn't already.
In New York, I'm Amy Scott for Marketplace.
This illegal alien mess has been methodically created by both parties for decades. But monumental amounts of the US population do not agree with this outcome. LaRaza, a radical anti-Sovereignty organization, will transform the US into a third world dumping ground yet?
Incidentally regarding the 2010 Census? Small states will miss out big time on federal dollars, while mass illegal immigrant states will gain more seats in Congress and too much power and influence? Of course ICE could check the immigration status of those who are counted, even though it's supposedly against US law? Or is counting non-legal residence against the US Constitution?
All we need is mandatory E-Verify to remove from every honest business, workers who came here illegally; those who don't will suffer severe penalties. This is a murky back-door way for hard-line Liberal Democrats to sneak past all verification measures, which would approve a path to citizenship for lawbreakers thus giving them access to--YOUR--health care? All Americans GOOGLE--NUMBERSUSA, to uncover the deceitful way they plan to cheat all legal workers and citizens? America is already on the road to irreversible OVERPOPULATION. Do all the people out their who are suffering from a compassion syndrome, believe--ALL--Americans want to pay even higher taxes to support corporate welfare, for the millions they have already hired? I don't think so?
