Library

Reports: Economy and workforce

The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap
American Association of University Women, March 2025, 10 pp.
This report examines the continued pay gap between women and men and forces which contribute to it. It also looks at factors such as age, race, and education, and state variation. more info >

Collaborative on Economic Mobility
Office of Community Services. Administration for Children and Familie, January 2025, 94 pp.
This report highlights emerging and promising practices that enhance economic mobility for individuals, families, and communities facing poverty. It includes a landscape analysis designed to increase understanding of the factors and conditions contributing to economic mobility. more info >

Poverty in the United States: 2023
U.S. Census Bureau, September 2024, 61 pp.
This report provides estimates of two measures of poverty: the official poverty measure and the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), finding that there were 36.8 million people in poverty in the United States in 2023. more info >

Promising Practices for Integrating Positive Youth Development in the Workplace
Child Trends, August 2024, 9 pp.
This series of three case studies aims to give workforce development practitioners an understanding of specific supervision, professional development, and worker voice practices that are currently being implemented by employers that align with positive youth development practices. more info >

Community-Level Racial Inequities in Young Adults’ Credit Scores Are Likely Driven by Differences in Wealth-Building Opportunities
Urban Institute, June 2024, 16 pp.
Credit score data suggests that a significant portion of racial disparities in young adults' credit scores reflects systemic differences in wealth-building opportunities across communities, including differences in residential segregation and housing wealth. more info >

State of Black America
National Urban League, June 2024
Annual report from the National Urban League. The most recent report focuses on the impact of the 1964 Civil Rights, and includes measures related income, education, health, civic engagement, housing, transportation, and public safety for Hispanic, Black, and White populations. Includes metropolitan area rankings of unemployment and income equality. more info >

The State of the American Middle Class
Pew Research Center, May 2024
Presents key trends about the economic status of the U.S. middle class, including that the percentage of Americans living in middle-class households has decreased from 71% in 1971 to 61% in 2023. more info >

The Decisive Decade: Understanding the Trajectories of 14- to 24-year-olds
Brookings Institution, April 2024
This report provides a snapshot of how young adults age 14-24 are faring in regard to health, family, education, and work outcomes, highlighting the need for continued investment in resources that can enable or impede their progress. It identifies key indicators of success and areas of disparities to inform policy efforts aimed at improve young adults' opportunities. more info >

Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America
The Urban Institute, April 2024, 4 pp.
This report examines wealth disparities in the U.S. over time across race and age, demonstrating how gaps in earnings, homeownership rates, retirement savings, benefits from tax subsidies, and intergenerational transfers contribute to wealth inequities. It includes evidence-based solutions for policymakers to build wealth for all Americans. more info >

Recent Trends in Children’s Poverty and Health Insurance as Pandemic-Era Programs Expire
Kaiser Family Foundation, January 2024, 6 pp.
This issue brief examines recent trends in children's poverty rates and the impact of expiring federal aid, including the loss of Medicaid coverage for many children. more info >

Race for Results: Building a Pathway to Opportunity for All Children
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, January 2024, 51 pp.
This report uses the Race for Results Index, a collection of data presented by racial and ethnic groups and by state, to examine progress and disparities related to child and youth wellbeing. Indicators address early childhood, academic achievement, teen parenting, higher education, and family characteristics. more info >

The State of America's Children
Children's Defense Fund, December 2023, 86 pp.
A compilation of national and state-by-state data on poverty, health, child welfare, youth at risk, early childhood development, education, nutrition and housing. Report is compiled annually. more info >

Advancing Economic Mobility for Low-Income Families: Policy Options for Governors
NGA Center for Best Practices, September 2022, 25 pp.
Suggests a range of strategies for policymakers to help promote savings and increase income levels among low-income individuals and families. more info >

Lessons from a Historic Decline in Child Poverty: Indicators on Children and Youth
Child Trends Data Bank, September 2022, 100 pp.
Describes the decline in child poverty in the past quarter century, looking particularly at the influence of federal anti-poverty programs on poverty and root causes of poverty among families with children. more info >

What Strategies Can Programs Use to Help More Dads Participate in Fatherhood Services?
MDRC, March 2022, 6 pp.
Widening gaps in fathers’ involvement in parenting and in the quality and stability of parents’ relationships may reinforce disparities in outcomes. This paper collects engagement approaches practitioners and other stakeholders have tried or are considering to strengthen fathers’ participation in program services. more info >

The Growing Socioeconomic Gap in Lifetime Social Security Retirement Benefits: Current and Future Retirees
Journals of Gerontology B, Oxford Academic, October 2021, 11 pp.
Explores the widening gap between lifetime Social Security benefits received based on socioeconomic status and gender. more info >

Inequities in Job Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Carsey Institute, September 2021, 12 pp.
This policy brief provides an update on the employment trends that took place between February 2020 and June 2021, focusing on the change in the number of persons with a job and racial disparities in unemployment rates. more info >

Stark Inequality: Financial Asset Inequality Undermines Retirement Security
National Institute on Retirement Security, August 2021, 23 pp.
This report finds that economic inequality continues to grow, with financial assets significantly higher for white households than Black or Hispanic households, and with wealth further concentrated among white households in the top 25 percent of net worth. more info >

Race in the Heartland: Equity, Opportunity, and Public Policy in the Midwest
Iowa Policy Project, Policy Matters Ohio, October 2019, 37 pp.
Examines racial disparities in economic opportunity and economic outcomes in the Midwest, and proposes a range of policy solutions. more info >

The Poverty-Reducing Effect of Five Key Government Programs in Rural and Urban America
Carsey School of Public Policy, April 2019, 4 pp.
Poverty data from the American Community Survey were released on September 17, 2015, allowing a detailed examination of poverty in 2014 across the United States. This brief discusses changes in child poverty between 2013 and 2014 and since 2009, just after the Great Recession ended. more info >

The Economic Status of Women in the States
U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, March 2018, 7 pp.
The Status of Women in the States provides data on women's progress in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States overall, measuring factors such as women's earnings, the gender wage gap, and women's labor force participation. more info >

Child Poverty Higher and More Persistent in Rural America
Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire, February 2016, 8 pp.
This brief looks at the incidence of high child poverty over the past three decades and at the places where such high child poverty has persisted for all of those decade. It shows that the incidence of high child poverty is growing nationwide and that rural America includes a disproportionate share of children living in poverty. more info >

Web sites

Economic Policy Institute
Focuses on the economic condition of low- and middle-income Americans and their families. Includes issue guides on the following topics: living wage, minimum wage, poverty and family budgets, retirement security, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and welfare. more info >

diversitydatakids.org
Presents measures of child wellbeing and policy analysis for states, counties, large cities, and metropolitan areas. more info >