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As it is in many U.S. states, income in Idaho is on an upward trend. Idaho lost ground in per capita personal income from 2009-2011 as it recovered from the Great Recession. But what’s also growing is the gap between personal income in Idaho and in the national as a whole.Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show Idahoans earned less in 2012 than residents of almost every other state in the country.A closer look at hourly wages reveals half of Idaho’s workforce earned $14.58 an hour or less in 2012. The hourly wage in Idaho, on average, is $18.48.Idaho also had a larger share of hourly workers earning minimum wage in 2012 than ever before. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 31,000 Idahoans made $7.25 an hour or less in 2012. That’s a 63 percent increase from 2011.

Number Of Uninsured Down, Poverty Rates Stagnant In Northwest

NWNews | By Jessica Robinson,

Jessica Robinson

Published September 19, 2013 at 9:01 AM MDT

Idaho and Oregon are among the states that have seen a decrease in the number of uninsured.

The drop was mainly due to an increase in the number of people enrolled in public insurance programs, like Medicaid. Those are some of the findings of new reports out Thursday from the Census Bureau.

The American Community Survey provides a state-by-state breakdown on income, poverty and health insurance, among other measures. The Northwest, like the rest of the nation, saw the poverty rate hold steady between 2011 and 2012. Washington state, in contrast to Oregon and Idaho, didn't see a drop last year in the number of people without health insurance.

“I think that these numbers reflect what we've all been feeling, which is that even though we're officially no longer in a recession, unemployment rates have been slow to drop, incomes haven't gone up significantly,” says Marieka Klawitter, who studies poverty issues at the University of Washington.

One notable exception is Oregon's median household income. It rose by 3.3 percent in 2012. Oregon is one of only four states where that happened.

On the Web:

American Community Survey - US Census Bureau

Number Of Uninsured Down, Poverty Rates Stagnant In Northwest

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