U.S. food-stamp use declines as jobs outlook improves

The number of Americans receiving food stamps dropped to 46.225 million in October from a record as the labor market improved and disaster assistance ended in East Coast states, the government said.

The number fell 0.1 percent from 46.268 million in September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in an email. Participation was 7 percent higher than a year earlier. While some of the month-to-month decline can be attributed to the end of aid to recipients affected by powerful East Coast storms, an improved labor outlook was also a factor, said Kevin Concannon, the head of the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.

“It’s the impact of job opportunities for folks,” Concannon, whose agency administers the program, said today in a telephone interview. “That’s the way this program is designed.”

Joblessness fell to 8.5 percent in December from 8.7 percent the previous month, the Labor Department said today. In October, the latest month for which food-stamp figures are available, the unemployment rate was 8.9 percent, down from 9 percent in September, according to revised data.

The number of Americans receiving assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the initiative more commonly called food stamps, has set records every month but two since December 2008. Aid also fell in June because of a decline in weather-disaster funding.