Americans on the lower rungs of the economic ladder have always been exposed to sudden ruin.
In a rare study of vulnerability to poverty, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that the risk of a plummet of at least a year below the official poverty line rose sharply in the 1990's, compared with the two previous decades.
By all signs such insecurity has continued to worsen.
"There's strong evidence that over the past five years, record numbers of lower-income Americans find themselves in a more precarious economic position than at any time in recent memory."
For all age groups except those 70 and older, the odds of a temporary spell of poverty doubled in the 1990's, Mr. Rank reported in a 2004 paper titled, "The Increase of Poverty Risk and Income Insecurity in the U.S. Since the 1970's," written with Daniel A. Sandoval and Thomas A. Hirschl, both of Cornell University.
For example, during the 1980's, around 13 percent of Americans in their 40's spent at least one year below the poverty line; in the 1990's, 36 percent of people in their 40's did, according to the analysis.
Comparable figures for this decade will not be available for several years, but other indicators --- a climbing poverty rate and rising levels of family debt --- suggest a deepening insecurity, poverty experts and economists say.
More people work in jobs without health coverage, including temporary or contract jobs that may offer no benefits or even access to unemployment insurance.
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