46.5 Million Americans, Record 22.3 Million US Households, On Foodstamps; 8,753,935 On Disability

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Comparing persons on "foodstamps" with number of new jobs is just stupid.

Last edited Fri Jul 27, 2012, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm talking about this statement:

At the individual level, 46.5 million Americans lived off foodstamps, a 222,157 increase in the month, or nearly three times the number of people who found jobs in June according to the BLS.

Here's why. First, it compares individuals in households (a mixture of adults and children) to labor force participants (adults.) Comparing the household change number would be somewhat better but still weak because not all of those households have likely labor force participants (e.g. many households with only disabled adults or low income seniors.)

Second, it compares new job finders to those on assistance as if a new job render persons ineligible for SNAP benefits. Approximately 30% of heads of households receiving SNAP benefits are employed yet still qualify for some assistance because of low wages. Unless all of those new jobs are full time and/or higher wage positions some of the new job finders may still be eligible for SNAP.

And on a related note, I assume the writer is being facetious about average benefits creeping up because higher average benefits generally mean that average income of recipients has gone down, thus qualifying more recipients for higher benefits.