One striking thing about statistics in the Great Recession is the sheer number of times you can say the worst rise in 60 years or the steepest decline since records have been kept. A record number of people collecting unemployment benefits. A record number of people using food stamps. A record number of new foreclosures. The largest one-month increase in jobless Americans since 1949. A record number of Americans unemployed for more than six months. For the first time ever, more private-sector services jobs than goods-producing jobs lost. And on and on. That's just the beginning of a seemingly endless list.
Yesterday, with the release of the Census Bureau's update for 2008, there was another record established: The real median income fell by $1,860 from 2007 to 2008. That's a decline of 3.6%, which makes it the worse one-year decline since 1967, when records were first kept on such matters.
Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute put it in perspective:
[The first graphic] shows real median income over the last 30 years both for all households and, starting in 1994 when the data became available, for working-age households. A key point here is the comparison between business cycles. From 1979 to 1989, real median income grew $2,965, (from $45,498 to $48,463,) and from 1989 to 2000, it grew $4,037, (from $48,463 to $52,500). But for the first time on record, over the business cycle from 2000-2007, incomes didn't rise — they fell slightly from $52,500 to $52,163. And with the weak labor market over this period, the real median income of working-age households fell significantly, from $60,804 to $58,718. This means that working families are weathering the current economic recession without the cushion that a robust expansion prior to the recession would have afforded them. ...
We find that the average income for the middle 20% of households will likely decline by $2,456 in 2009, and by an additional $601 in 2010, for a total decline of $4,813 from 2007 to 2010. This is a decline in income of 9.3% for the typical household over these three years. Given the decline in income over the weak business cycle from 2000 to 2007, this means that after reaching an all-time peak in 2000, by 2010 real incomes for the typical household will likely have declined by $5,729, or 10.8% — truly a lost decade.
Click here for clearer image.
Click here for clearer image.
In the coming days, we'll talk more about the Census report's results, particularly in regards to poverty, including child poverty, which rose from 18% to 19% over 2007 and is now a full 5 points above what it was in 1969.