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August 26, 2008New poverty, income, and health coverage analysis |
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From Economic Policy Institute: Given the weakening job market last year, the median income of working-age households (those headed by someone less than 65) rose insignificantly in 2007, and was $2,010 below its 2000 level. While last year's overall income gains are good news, the longer-range view is quite different. The Census figures show that the economic cycle that began in 2000 and ended late last year was one of the weakest on record for working families, despite strong overall economic growth during the same period (see Table 1 and Figure 1). Despite strong gains in earnings last year, men who worked full-time made essentially no gains from 2000-2007 because of large losses from 2003 to 2006. African American median household income rose 3.2% last year, but took a big hit overall in the 2000s, down 5.1% ($1,800). Output per hour, or productivity, rose 2.5% per year during the 2000 to 2007 cycle, compared to 2% in the 1990s, when family incomes fared much better. The economy of course expanded in the 2000s, but that growth clearly failed to reach most households, a dynamic that implicates growing income inequality. For example, output per hour, or productivity, grew strongly in the 2000s, up 2.5% per year from 2000 to 2007, compared to 2.0% in the 1990s.
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