Working-age America is the new face of poverty.

Counting adults 18-64 who were laid off in the recent
recession as well as single twenty-somethings still looking for jobs, the new
working-age poor represent nearly 3 out of 5 poor people — a switch from
the early 1970s when children made up the main impoverished group.

While much of the shift in poverty is due to demographic
changes — Americans are having fewer children than before — the
now-weakened economy and limited government safety net for workers are heightening
the effect.

Canada should reduce immigration during deep economic recession, say the
authors of a detailed analysis of the earnings of immigrants over their
first 10 years in the country that also touts the benefits of selecting
newcomers based on earning potential.

Canada
should emphasize skill-assessed immigrants because their earning power
“consistently and substantially” out-performed other classes of
newcomers, the study says.

The unemployment situation across America is bad, no
doubt. But for African-Americans in some cities, this is not the great
recession. It’s the Great Depression.

Take Charlotte, N.C., for example. It is a jewel of the “new South.”
The largest financial center outside of New York City, it's the showcase
for next year’s Democratic National Convention. It was a land of hope
and opportunity for many blacks with a four-year college degree or
higher.

According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, in
Charlotte, N.C., the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 19.2
percent. If you add in people who have given up looking for jobs, that
number exceeds 20 percent, which, according to economists Algernon
Austin and William Darity, has effectively mired blacks in a depression.

Talk to Republicans these days, and everything is about jobs. They campaigned by slamming Democrats for not paying enough attention to the issue in 2009 and 2010, and now that they are in power they are determined to frame their actions in terms of jobs. So the bill to repeal Obamacare is titled the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." Likewise, when Smith appeared on Fox News on Tuesday and was asked what he will do about illegal immigration, he answered simply, "The main thing we're going to do is create jobs for Americans."



At the moment, the focus on jobs means Smith is steering away from some of the hottest-button immigration issues. Asked about the Obama administration's lawsuit against the state of Arizona, the Texas Republican is quick to condemn it -- he says it is "misguided and unnecessary" and sends the message that the administration "is not interested in having our immigration laws enforced" -- but doesn't see much that he can do about it as chairman. "Not any more than I have already done, which is I have weighed in on the side of Arizona," Smith says. "That's now in the courts, and it is the courts who will make that determination."