Press TV – August 22, 2013
US median income has declined by 7.2 percent since 2000 presenting fresh evidence of the deep economic stagnation the nation has suffered for more than a decade, according to a new report.
US median household income, adjusted for inflation, has also fallen 4.4 percent to $52,098 since the recession officially ended in 2009, according to the report released Wednesday from Sentier Research.
Current US median household income is 6.1 percent below the $55,480 that the median household took in when the recession began in December 2007.
The report, underscoring the lasting damage wrought by the economic downturn, is based on an analysis of Census Bureau data.
Economists view median income as a key marker for the well-being of the nation’s middle class.
Analysts said the report reflects the shrinking middle class and the increasing economic gap between the rich and poor, indicated in previous studies as well.
“Median income is affected by trends in inequality, and you are seeing that to the extent there has been income growth in the past decade, it has disproportionately gone to those at the top and very top,” said Gregory Acs, director of the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, a research organization.
Income is down even though the number of people who report having a college degree is up sharply since the end of the recession, the report said.
Part of the decline in Americans’ income is because of the surge in part-time hiring by US businesses.
Three out of four of the nearly 1 million people hired by US businesses this year are working part-time or receive low wages, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Thousands of frustrated fast-food and retail workers in the US are planning another job strike across the country on Aug, 29 to protest low wages and part-time work.