Poverty in US – Who are they ?

As a share of the total working-age adult living in poverty population:

• 18 percent —a third of the non-workers living in poverty—are disabled.
• 26 percent—just under half of non-workers—are caregivers or students.
• 6 percent are retired, though it is important to note that only the working-age population is considered here, so this constitutes early retirement.
• 5 percent of the total population of working-age adults in poverty are not in the labor force and are neither disabled, a caregiver, a student, nor retired.

Certainly some share of those who are disabled, a caregiver, a student, or retired—as well as the remaining small fraction outside those groups—are people who are capable of employment. As Figure 3 illustrates, a portion of those living in poverty who are disabled, a caregiver, a student, or retired are indeed in the labor force.

Though 13 percent of working-age adults living in poverty are working full-time year-round, about twice as many were employed less than full-time year-round in 2014. Figure 3 further investigates the composition of working-age adults living in poverty that reported usually working part-time and who were working part-time in March 2015.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Who is poor in the United States? | Brookings Institution