For Immediate Release: Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810
EPI analysis of census data on income and poverty
The 2010 poverty and income data released yesterday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau are yet another reminder of the continued weight of the Great Recession on families in the United States, according to EPI economists Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholz in their analysis, A lost decade: Poverty and income trends continue to paint a bleak picture for working families.
The Great Recession officially ended in the summer of 2009, but the labor market continued deteriorating through the end of 2009, and the modest economic growth in 2010 was not enough to compensate for those losses. From 2009 to 2010, the number of jobs fell by 658,000, the unemployment rate increased from 9.3 percent to 9.6 percent, and the share of unemployed workers who had been unemployed for more than six months climbed from 31.2 percent to 43.3 percent. Thanks to this deterioration in the labor market, incomes dropped and poverty rose.
Note: For analysis of health insurance coverage, see “2010 marks another year of decline for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage.”
EPI experts also posted analysis of the data to Working Economics, the new EPI blog:
- · Deep poverty at all-time high by Elise Gould
- · Recession continues to take its toll on America’s children by Algernon Austin
- · Already a lost decade: Working-age household income down more than 10% since 2000 by Heidi Shierholz
- · By the numbers: 2010 income, poverty, and health insurance coverage by Elise Gould, Heidi Shierholz, Hilary Wething and Nicholas Finio