What Recovery? Household Incomes Plummeted After 2009
As bad as things were during the recession, household incomes actually declined at a faster pace in the years after it ended, one new study shows.
The median annual income for U.S. households before taxes dropped from $55,309 when the recession officially began in December 2007 to $53,518 in June 2009 – a 3.2% decline – according to data collected by two former Census Bureau officials in a report for Sentier Research. That decline came at a time of economic crisis when businesses nationwide laid off millions of workers and cut pay and hours for many more, but as bad as this income drop was, it’s nothing compared to what happened after the economy supposedly came out of the recession.
n the two years after the recession officially ended in June 2009, the median household income continued to plummet, dropping by more than $3,500 to $49,909. That represents a decline of 6.7% in the first two years...