Low-income status was the lot of 26 percent of open-country residents over 15 years of age in the East North Central States, a 1967 sample survey showed. Many were unprepared to compete in today's labor market. Of those with low income, 37 percent had no economic potential because of age (over 65) or disability, and needed some form of income maintenance to alleviate poverty. Of those considered to have economic potential, 20 percent could expect to escape poverty through job retraining. If two or more members of a consumer unit (an individual or a family) were retrained, as many as 25 percent of the consumer units might escape poverty. Fewer than half of those potentially able to escape poverty were interested in retraining, which challenges retraining program administrators to develop innovative training delivery systems. Very few respondents had potential for becoming successful farmers.