A greater number of the working poor are employed at low-paying jobs. One-fifth of all poor families had two or more wage earner for part of the year and remained poor. The problems for the working poor are frequent joblessness, low wages, deficient education, and inadequate skills. The plight of the working poor can be alleviated by employment programs that streamline the operation of the labor market, increase the productivity of low-income workers, and create opportunities for employment and advancement. Legislation to eliminate discrimination must also be enforced when such employment and training programs are implemented.
Programs provide goods and services directly to the needy to supplement their income.
Whatever the means of helping the poor with cash or in-kind income, public attention must usually be focused on a specific problems in order to receive political attention. The necessary goods and services sometimes are not available on the market, and direct provision is a more effective way of providing essential aid. Low-costing housing, for example, desperately needed to combat homelessness, is not profitable to construct and will not be provided by the private sector of the economy without direct government action. Granting housing to the poor in the absence an increase in an affordable housing supply might raise rents on existing units, as it did during the 1980's. In a few cases the government may be able to provide goods and services more efficiently than the private sector because of the savings that are inherent in such large-scale transactions.