Though Recession Is "Over," Household Incomes Keep Falling

A common sentiment (jamie nyc's flickr).

So you know how the recession has supposedly been "over" since June 2009 even though it really doesn't feel like it? There is a reason for that and it isn't just that we've got unemployment hovering around nine percent. Two former Census officials have just released research that shows that the "Real median annual household income has fallen significantly more during the economic recovery period from June 2009 to June 2011 than during the recession lasting from December 2007 to June 2009." In particular? Since 2007, the real median annual household income has dropped by 9.8 percent.

There are a few reasons to explain the drop in household income, though none of them are particularly pleasant. The biggest, however, seems to come down to jobs, jobs, jobs. According to another study, "people who lost jobs in the recession and later found work again made an average of 17.5 percent less than they had in their old jobs." While the hourly pay of employed people has been steady or dropped in that time, the price of things like oil products and foods have not. Further, the average length of time a person who lost a job remains unemployed keeps on rising: in September it reached a 60-year-high of 40.5 weeks!

The decline in household income has not hurt everyone equally though. Households headed by people aged 65-74, who aren't really in the work force as much, saw their income rise 4.7 percent in that time. And while private-sector and government-sector workers saw their real median annual income decline 4.3 and 3.9 percent, respectively, the self-employed have been much harder hit. They've seen a drop of 12.3 percent.

All of which makes folk's concerns that they've been forgotten by the American dream seem, well, kind of reasonable.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on October 10, 2011 11:19 AM

Comments [rss]

seattlesnow

they still teach Macroeconomics? Really do they?

whiteiris

"Make $350.00 to $650.00 a week protesting on Wall Street.
FIGHT TO HOLD WALLSTREET ACCOUNTABLE NOW! MAKE A DIFFERNENCE GET PAID!"

http://newyork.craigslist.org/...

how much to crap on police cars?

haha grassroots.

69GeorgeWBush69

Do you even read the stuff you post? It's a job looking to canvassers and organizers. You make it sound like hey are trying to pay people to hold signs. There's not even any mention of hires even being sent to work for the OWS movement.

BottomlessChips

According to another study, "people who lost jobs in the recession and later found work again made an average of 17.5 percent less than they had in their old jobs."

Why is this shocking?

jfu222

The Self Emplyed seem like the real job creators to me.

pendejito

"people who lost jobs in the recession and later found work again made an average of 17.5 percent less than they had in their old jobs."

If I was a buisness owner, now looks like the time to hire.

Recession? More like, a gift from God.

delicats

Yeah, totally, because paying your employees what you can get away with is a surefire way to guarantee a happy & productive workforce.

pendejito

If I'm a tomatoe grower in Florida, do you really think I care about a happy and productive workforce? Really?

Especially knowing that if anyone of them slips up, there's plenty of more waiting to take his/her place.

delicats

How would I know you're tomato grower in Florida? Nothing in your initial comment indicated that you were (theoretically obviously) an employer in an notoriously exploitative field..

In industries where people can be replaced by snapping your fingers, wages are usually minimum wage or less. So your argument doesn't really make any sense.

ixvnyc

Except that you can't get any loans from banks (you know, the 1%, or more accurately 0.001% in charge of all of our money) to get things going.

Mark Banish

why work only 1 job, when you can work 2 or 3? double, even TRIPLE the excitement!

splicernyc

Waiting for the comments saying that people should have no expectation that their jobs will actually pay them enough money to live.

shocktheday

Politicians need to explain the coincidence between all that cash infusion by the Federal Gov't and record cash reserves being held by banks and corporations. You would think some stipulations would be put in place with the stimulus packages to guarantee continuous flow of money.

sanitychecker

The reason that it feels like the recession is still going on when it officially ended a year ago is that the declared ending was based on false information. It was based on a dollar-based measurement of economic growth. However, the dollar has been systematically debased by the Federal Reserve, especially since 2008, in an effort to stimulate the economy. Thus, it is not an accurate measuring stick. Measure economic activity against a reliable measurement, such as any precious metal, and it becomes clear that we are still in recession (depression, really) after all.

hobbes80

Middle-management jobs are going away as the ability for high-end managers to more efficiently communicate with direct-line workers is improving. The ability for "on-the-ground" staff to operate more autonomously makes a management layer in between the long term planners and the "doers" a distracting 'bump-in-the-wire'.

Seems many a manager is having a meeting "with the bobs" to find out "What would you say you do here?"