Idaho

Nearly five years after the official end of the Great Recession that began in 2007 and peaked in October 2008 with the collapse of three major banks, many Americans are still struggling to maintain employment and support their households. This is particularly true in Idaho, where thousands of minimum-wage workers live below the poverty line as a result of increasing costs for basic necessities. While such economic depiction is indicative of a more optimistic outlook for Idaho in comparison to the national poverty-level outlook, state and local government officials and community groups are still faced with pervasive poverty statistics among certain segments of the state population, including households with single parents, elders, and ethnic minorities.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey, the ...