More job opportunities for the poor could be the solution for poverty in Georgia, a free-market solutions advocate says.
Georgia’s workforce and economy have shown promising growth, but new numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau show poverty has declined in the state but still sits high above the national level.
“This shows that there is much more to be done to address poverty here in Georgia,” Corey Burres, spokesperson for the nonprofit Georgia Center for Opportunity, said.
According to the Census report released this week, the average number of people living in poverty in the state has decreased by 2.8 percent over 2015-2016 and 2017-2018. The overall rate for the country dropped by 1.1 percent. Yet, the percentage of poor Georgians is 2.4 more than the national average, which is 12.3 percent.
Burres said one way to curb poverty in Georgia is to create more job opportunities in the impoverished areas of the state.
Based on the Census Bureau’s three-year estimates, there is an average of 1,522,000 people in Georgia living in poverty.
