<p>One of the fundamental measures for CED officials to track is a community’s economic condition. This issue of measuring economic condition, whether for an entire community or a single household, has taken on a central role in policy discussions recently, ranging from an emphasis on income inequality in academic research, to social movements, to political discussions on reforming anti-poverty social safety net programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It is also part of the discussion in new analysis of the types of jobs coming to North Carolina, which is finding that the state is missing out on middle-class wage job growth.</p> <p>In many instances, official government measures such as the poverty, unemployment, and related social safety net participation rates are used to reflect local economic condition.  These measures have long been recognized as flawed and/or limited – they were established in the 1960s and do not take into account cost of living differences across communities or what people purchase or need.  Food was a major part of household purchases at the time the poverty measure was developed, but it is less so now, and the threshold itself between what was ‘poverty’ and what was not was somewhat arbitrary.</p> <p>And at the time, the measure indicated that poverty touched many more people in our communities.  For example, at the time the measure was adopted, it represented 50 percent of median income.  It now represents 30 percent, resulting in a stricter interpretation of what is considered to be the line between being in [...]</p>