UPDATED: U.S. median income hit $59,039 in 2016, the highest ever reported by Census Bureau
Source: The Washington Post
By Washington Post Staff September 12 at 11:05 AM
Middle-class household income set an all-time record last year, besting the previous high set in 1999, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
Median income is a key measure of the economic health of the U.S. middle class, which struggled during the slow economic growth of the early 2000s and was devastated by the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession.
The nation’s poverty rate fell to 12.7 percent in 2016, with 40.6 million people living in poverty, 2.5 million fewer than in 2015, the agency reported. The poverty rate hit its post-recession peak in 2010 at 15.1 percent and is now slightly above where it was in 2007. Health insurance coverage rates hit 92.1 percent, with slightly more people covered than in 2015.
While the median income reported in 2016 is the highest the Census Bureau has ever published, the agency changed its methodology in 2014. As a result, the agency says prior years’ figures may not be directly comparable.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/09/12/u-s-median-income-hit-59039-in-2016-the-highest-ever-reported-by-census-bureau/?pushid=59b7f7d2d4ac501c0000002b&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.9b2272eaa728
UPDATE
Middle-class income hit highest level on record in 2016, Census Bureau reports
By Heather Long September 12 at 11:10 AM
America's middle class had its highest-earning year ever in 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
Median household income in America was $59,039 last year, surpassing the previous high of $58,655 set in 1999, the Census Bureau said. The figure is adjusted for inflation and is one of the most closely watched indicators of how the middle class is faring financially, as the Census surveys nearly 100,000 homes.
The Census said the uptick in earnings occurred because so many people found full-time jobs — or better-paying jobs — last year.
America's poverty rate also fell to 12.7 percent, the lowest since 2007, the year before the financial crisis hit. The percent of Americans without health insurance also dropped last year to just 8.8 percent, largely thanks to expanding coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Economists welcomed the news as evidence the recovery had finally taken hold after years of frustration for the middle class as they watched the stock market soar but their incomes barely budged. Donald Trump tapped into this anger in the 2016 campaign, often saying people were no better off economically than they were in 2000.
“The slow early 2000s recovery and expansion, combined with the damage done by the Great Recession, has led to nearly two decades of lost income growth for typical American households,” says economist Elise Gould of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/12/middle-class-income-hit-highest-level-on-record-in-2016-census-bureau-reports/?deferJs=true&outputType=default-article&utm_term=.83737f3f1e61
= new reply since forum marked as read
unless it benefits Trump, which the 2016 numbers totally will since he was responsible for it before he took office. That's not entirely a joke as I did have a Trumpster tell me in all seriousness that having Trump running for election was enough to encourage job creators to hire people out of optimism that he would make America great again.
Obama is responsible for Katrina but not these jobs and wages or the long road to recovery after the Democrats crashed the economy in 2008.
