Economic Indicators
Compiled by theProgressive Review
HISTORICAL STATS ON DEBT & DEPRESSION
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2013 Bottom 90% earning only $59 more than in 1966 A third of job creation is below poverty level in pay Nearly four in ten private-sector workers—and 81% of low-wage workers —don’t have a single paid sick day to recover from common, short-term illnesses. From the Economic Collapse Blog According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately one out of every six Americans is now living in poverty. The number of Americans living in poverty is now at a level not seen since the 1960s. Today, approximately 20 percent of all children in the United States are living in poverty. Incredibly, a higher percentage of children is living in poverty in America today than was the case back in 1975. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are currently living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished. 29 percent of all African-American households with children are dealing with food insecurity. The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less in the United States has grown to 2.8 million. That number has increased by 130 percent since 1996. Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent. There are approximately 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001. About 40 percent of all unemployed workers in America have been out of work for at least half a year. One out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less. Right now, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. And that does not even include Social Security or Medicare. An all-time record 48 million Americans are now on food stamps. Back when Barack Obama first took office, that number was only sitting at about 32 million. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of "Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming." 21 - Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, close to one out of every six Americans is on food stamps. More than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.  2012... America's disappearing workforce Nearly four in ten private-sector workers—and 81% of low-wage workers —don’t have a single paid sick day to recover from common, short-term illnesses. Chile, Mexico, Turkey only developed countries more economically unequal than U.S. Median household wealth at lowest since 1969  As unions decline, so does the middle class   Nearly half of Americans die with hardly any assets Children in poverty: Up 18% since 2006 Union membership & middle class income  and union membership (red) - Atlantic  For first time, older workers more numerous than younger ones Robert Tornoe, Newsworks - In most European countries like Germany, it's typical for workers to have six weeks of paid vacation. In fact, most take off three consecutive weeks in August when most of the countries in Europe shut down. While most industrialized nations guarantee their workers at least 20 paid vacation days a year, the U.S. guarantees their workers exactly zero.  17 million Americans who really didn't need to go to college, including 80,000 bartenders and 5,000 janitors with PhDs. Chronicle of Higher Education based on Bureau of Labor Statistic data 35-44 year olds worst losers in net worth Robert Tornoe, Newsworks - In most European countries like Germany, it's typical for workers to have six weeks of paid vacation. In fact, most take off three consecutive weeks in August when most of the countries in Europe shut down. While most industrialized nations guarantee their workers at least 20 paid vacation days a year, the U.S. guarantees their workers exactly zero. and union membership (red) - Atlantic Percentage change in the past twenty-five years in the net worth of Americans thirty-five and younger: -68 - Harpers The latest edition of UNICEF's report on child poverty in developed countries found that 30 million children in 35 of the world's richest countries live in poverty. Among those countries, the United States ranks second on the scale of what economists call "relative child poverty" -- above Latvia, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, and 29 others. High school student employment down 50% since 1990  Bernie Sanders: Corporate tax revenue in 2010 was 27% smaller than 2000, even though corporate profits are up 60 percent over the last decade. PRODUCTIVITY VS WAGES   IMPLODE O METER  How Reagan got our disaster going Union membership notched up in 2011 Bill Quigley, Truth Out - In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked. The US poverty line is $18,530 for a mom and two kids. Since 2007 the numbers of working poor have been increasing. About 7 percent of all workers and 4 percent of all full-time workers earn wages that leave them below the poverty line. One third of the working poor, over 3 million people, work in the service industry. Workers in other occupations are also poor: 16 percent of those in farming; 11 percent in construction; and 11 percent in sales. Women workers are more likely to be poor than men. African American and Hispanic workers are about twice as likely to be poor as whites. College graduates have a 2 percent poverty rate while workers without a high school diploma have a poverty rate 10 times higher at 20 percent. Ten percent of US workers earn $8.50 an hour or less according to the US Department of Labor. About 12 percent have health care and about 12 percent have retirement benefits. Nearly one in four get paid sick leave and less than half get paid vacation leave. Earnings of men collapse over past 40 years Record number of Americans 55 and older are working   CENTER ON BUDGET & POLICY PRIORITES Tens of thousands of British public workers strike Another GOP myth exploded: Public workers earn less than private peers  Stats Fifty percent of U.S. workers earned less than $26,364 last year Record number of underemployed Most Texas job growth went to immigrants  According a study by the British Guardian, the 1.4% increase in unemployment during the Obama administration has been concentrated in about half the states (the darker ones above). You can get details on your state by going here Bernie Sanders notes that of the total income increase in 2010, 93% went to the top 1% and only 7% to the bottom 99%. About 60 percent of U.S. workers said they have less than $25,000 in savings and investments. 2011 Bill Quigley, Truth Out - In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked. The US poverty line is $18,530 for a mom and two kids. Since 2007 the numbers of working poor have been increasing. About 7 percent of all workers and 4 percent of all full-time workers earn wages that leave them below the poverty line. One third of the working poor, over 3 million people, work in the service industry. Workers in other occupations are also poor: 16 percent of those in farming; 11 percent in construction; and 11 percent in sales. Women workers are more likely to be poor than men. African American and Hispanic workers are about twice as likely to be poor as whites. College graduates have a 2 percent poverty rate while workers without a high school diploma have a poverty rate 10 times higher at 20 percent. Ten percent of US workers earn $8.50 an hour or less according to the US Department of Labor. About 12 percent have health care and about 12 percent have retirement benefits. Nearly one in four get paid sick leave and less than half get paid vacation leave. While poverty gradually declined in the decades since King's death -- 32.4 million Americans lived below the threshold in 1986, the year the King holiday was first celebrated -- the numbers have climbed in recent years as the economy soured. Today, as the nation celebrates MLK Day for the 27th time, 46.2 million of its people have slid into the misery that King spent his final years fighting, with blacks experiencing the highest rate of any group: 27 percent. - Mercury News, CA Iceland is No. 1. But we did beat out Poland and Slovakia, right? Uh...no. But go on down the rankings and there we are! No. 27, fifth from the bottom. ... A foundation in Germany has analyzed the social justice records of all 31 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranking each nation in such categories as health care, income inequality, pre-school education, and child poverty. The overall performance by the United States — which boasts of being an egalitarian society — outranks only Greece, Chile, Mexico, and Turkey. - Jim Hightower  According to government statistics, if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent The military is a lousy way to create jobs CENTER ON BUDGET & POLICY PRIORITES     Why does the media keep saying the recession is over?  
According a study by the British Guardian, the 1.4% increase in unemployment during the Obama administration has been concentrated in about half the states (the darker ones above). You can get details on your state by going here What really caused the deficit?  CENTER ON BUDGET & POLICY PRIORITIES  Fifty percent of U.S. workers earned less than $26,364 last year 2010  ONE PERCENT ARE EARNING $700,000 MORE BUESINESS INSIDER    2009 Robert Creamer, Huffington Post - Over the last several decades, the financial sector has grown relentlessly. It has doubled in size over the last 14 years. During the period 1973 to 1985 the financial sector never earned more than 16% of domestic profits. This decade, it has averaged 41% of all the profits earned by businesses in the U.S. In 1947 the financial sector represented only 2.5% of our gross domestic product. In 2006 it had risen to 8%. In other words, of every 12.5 dollars earned in the United States, one goes to the financial sector, much of which, let us recall, produces nothing. MINIMUM WAGE STUCK IN THE 1950S Holly Sklar ZNet - Are you better off than you were 40 years ago? Not if you're a minimum wage worker. It would take $9.92 today to match the buying power of the minimum wage at its peak in 1968, the year Martin Luther King died fighting for living wages for sanitation workers. In today's dollars, the 1968 hourly minimum wage adds up to $20,634 a year working full time. The new federal minimum wage of $7.25 comes to just $15,080. That's $5,554 in lost wages. . . The minimum wage is stuck in the 1950s. With the raise, the minimum wage is higher than 1950's inflation- adjusted $6.71, but lower than the 1956 minimum wage of $7.93 in today's dollars. Nation - Since 1940, Republicans have controlled the White House for thirty-six years; Democrats for thirty-three. Yet Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that almost two-thirds of new jobs were created during Democratic administrations. Boston Globe - Since the beginning of the decade, the employment rate, or percentage of people working, has declined broadly for Americans under 30, with teens hardest hit. . . The percentage of working US teens plunged to 33 percent, or 1 in 3, in 2008, from 45 percent in 2000, or nearly 1 in 2. Meanwhile, the percentage of working adults over 55 rose to 38 percent nationally from 32 percent. . . Industries that traditionally offered work to teens, such as retail, food service, and entertainment, are increasingly filling jobs with older workers, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies. The number of 55- to 64-year-olds working in these industries has increased nationally by nearly 500,000, or 25 percent, since 2000. Teen employment in these industries declined by nearly 560,000, or 12 percent, during the same period. 2008  Wall Street Journal
- In a new sign
of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans
in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross
income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929,
according to Internal Revenue Service data. Meanwhile, the average
tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at
least 18 years. The group's share of the tax burden has risen,
though not as quickly as its share of income. According to the
figures, the richest 1% reported 22% of the nation's total adjusted
gross income in 2006. . . . The 1988 level was 15.2. . .   MOTHERS IN WORK FORCE DECLINING MAPS OF STARBUCKS & WALMARTS PER CAPITA IN U.S. DISTRICT CHRONICLES - Over 25 million households in America do not have bank accounts, according to a study conducted by the South Carolina Council on Economic Education, based in Columbia, S.C. . . . 80 percent of those households are Blacks (46 percent) and Hispanics (34 percent). 2007 THE SOUTH IS THE OTHER AMERICA FACING SOUTH - According to new figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau, our country still has a poverty problem: over 38 million U.S. Americans live below the poverty line, 13.3% of the population. What's striking is how completely the South dominates the list of states ravaged by poverty. Despite all those banks in Charlotte and all that Coke in Atlanta, eleven of the 15 states with the highest poverty rates are in the South: State & percent living in poverty: 1 - Mississippi, 21% 2 - Louisiana, 20.2% 3 - New Mexico, 18.4% 4 - District of Columbia, 18.3% 5 - West Virginia, 18% 6 - Texas, 17.5% 7 - Arkansas, 17.2% 8 - Alabama, 16.9% 8 - Kentucky, 16.9% 10 - Oklahoma, 16.4% 11 - Tennessee, 15.6% 11 - South Carolina, 15.6% 13 - North Carolina, 14.9% 14 - Montana, 14.6% 15 - Georgia, 14.5% Or another way to look at it: every Southern state except Florida and Virginia fall in the bottom 15. Some say the South is losing its regional distinctiveness in today's homogenized world. But the above statistics may point to another conclusion: the South still has defining features, and one of the big ones is poverty. http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/01/is-south-other-america.asp “There is one job we can’t afford on-the-job training for – that’s the job of our next president. That could be the costliest job training in history. Every day that’s spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits, and growing anxiety for our families. And they cannot afford to keep waiting. We need a president who understands the magnitude and complexity of the challenges we face – and has the strength and experience to address them from day one" - Hillary Clinton on the economy, November 2007 Leaving aside the still unanswered question of just which department of the government HRC ran during the Clinton administration uannounced to any of us, even if she was in charge of the economy, things didn't go anywhere near as well as the mythology has led us to believe. Here is a chart comparing the NASDAQ collapse at the end of the Clinton administration compared to the Dow during the 1929 crash. It was one of the bigger secrets the media kept from us. But then much of it occured in an election year.   By the time of the campaign, economic growth was in the third quarter of a downward trend that had actually peaked in the last quarter of 1999. When the GDP growth figures are combined with the similarly downplayed long-term stock market trendlines, it becomes clear that the "Clinton boom" was wearing out its welcome a year or more before the election.  .INDICATORS: ROBBER BARONS STILL DOING WELL CNN - The average CEO of a large U.S. company made roughly $10.8 million last year, or 364 times that of U.S. full-time and part-time workers, who made an average of $29,544, according to a joint analysis by the liberal Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. That gap is down from 411 times in 2005 and well-below the record high of 525 times recorded in 2000. But the comparison isn't exactly apples-to-apples, in part because IPS and UFE changed how they measured CEO options pay this year. . . The IPS/UFE report also compared U.S. CEO pay to that of leaders in other fields and other countries. The top 20 CEOs of U.S. companies made an average of $36.4 million in 2006. That's 204 times that of the 20 highest paid U.S. military generals, and 38 times that of the 20 highest-paid non-profit leaders. They also made three times more than the top 20 CEOs of European companies who had booked higher sales numbers than their U.S. counterparts. PROGRESS REPORT - There are more Americans living in poverty today than there are total people living in the state of California, the most populous state in the nation. The number of poor Americans has grown by five million in the past six years, while inequality has reached historically high levels. In 2005, the richest one percent of Americans had the largest share of the nation's income -- 19 percent -- since 1929, while the poorest 20 percent of Americans had only 3.4 percent of the nation's income. Though the number of Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily in the past three decades, a study by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that since 2000, "the number of severely poor has grown 'more than any other segment of the population.'" In 2005, 16 million people -- 5.4 percent of all Americans -- had incomes below half the poverty line. The number of Americans living in such extreme poverty grew by over three million between 2000 and 2005, and the share of poor people living in extreme poverty is now greater than at any point in the last 32 years. Without urgent action, these numbers are on course to continue growing. The federal minimum wage has remained static for nearly a decade. At $5.15 an hour, it is at its lowest level in real terms since 1956. The federal minimum wage was once 50 percent of the average wage, but is now only 30 percent of that wage. If Congress were to restore the minimum wage to 50 percent of the average wage -- about $8.40 an hour in 2006 -- it would help over 4.5 million poor workers and nearly nine million other low-income workers. . US INCOME GAP GREATEST SINCE 1928 DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, COMMON DREAMS - Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans - those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 - receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression. While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent. The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent. The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/29/163/ HOMELESSNESS BILL BRUBAKER, WASHINGTON POST - An estimated 754,000 people -- most of them minorities -- are homeless on any given night in the United States, according to a government survey presented to Congress . . . The report made it clear there are not enough shelters and transitional houses to accommodate all of the homeless people in the nation. In early 2005, there were 438,300 beds in shelters and transitional houses, the report said. However, HUD said there are an additional 209,000 beds in permanent houses for formerly homeless people. . . HUD officials said gathering
data on homeless people is important because it helps identify
ways to help them. . . About 65 percent of these people were
men, and 19 percent were military veterans. Fifty-nine percent
of those surveyed were racial minorities; 45 percent were black.
A third of the people who sought shelter during that three-month
period had families with children, and a quarter had a disabilities. PERCENTAGE OF POOR AMERICANS IN SEVERE POVERTY REACHES 32 YEAR HIGH TONY PUGH, MCCLATCHY - The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen. A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year. The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period. McClatchy's review also found statistically significant increases in the percentage of the population in severe poverty in 65 of 215 large U.S. counties, and similar increases in 28 states. The review also suggested that the rise in severely poor residents isn't confined to large urban counties but extends to suburban and rural areas. . . http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0223-09.htm PADRAIC CASSIDY, MARKET WATCH - Net farm income in the United States is expected to total $58.9 billion in 2006, a 20% drop from last year, the Department of Agriculture said Thursday. A $4.7 billion drop in the value of livestock production, including a decline in the price for milk, are responsible, according to the updated forecast from the USDA.  2006. . . . INCOME SCORECARD 1979-2004 BOTTOM 60% OF AMERICANS:
DOWN 5% DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, NY TIMES - Despite significant gains in 2004, the total income Americans reported to the tax collector that year, adjusted for inflation, was still below its peak in 2000, new government data shows. Reported income totaled $7.044 trillion in 2004, the latest year for which data is available, down from more than $7.143 trillion in 2000, new Internal Revenue Service data shows. . . The overall income declines . . . came despite a series of tax cuts that President Bush and Congressional Republicans promoted as the best way to stimulate both short and long-term growth after the Internet bubble burst on Wall Street in 2000 and the economy fell into a brief recession in 2001. . . Very top households, which include about 300,000 Americans, reported significantly more pretax income combined than the poorest 120 million Americans earned in 2004, the data show. This was a sharp change from 1979, the oldest year examined by the I.R.S., when the thin slice at the top received about one-third of the total income of the big group at the bottom. Over all, average incomes
rose 27 percent in real terms over the The bottom 60 percent of
Americans, on average, made less than 95 http://tinyurl.com/yaxw9g PAY GAP FOR COLLEGE EDUCATED WOMEN WIDENED SLIGHTLY IN LAST DECADE DAVID LEONHARDT, NY TIMES - Throughout the 1980s and early '90s, women of all economic levels - poor, middle class and rich - steadily gained ground on their male counterparts in the work force. By the mid-'90s, women earned more than 75 cents for each dollar in hourly pay that men did, up from 65 cents 15 years earlier. Largely without notice, however, one big group of women has stopped making progress: those with a four-year college degree. The gap between their pay and that of male college graduates has widened slightly since the mid '90s. For women without a college education, the pay gap with men has narrowed slightly over the same span. DRUM MAJOR INSTITUTE 2006 INJUSTICE INDEX Wages that an average CEO earns before lunchtime: more than a full-time minimum wage worker makes in a year Ratio of the average U.S. CEO's annual pay to a minimum wage worker's: 821:1 Total compensation in 2005 of Barry Diller of IAC - Interactive, the highest paid CEO in the US today: $469 million Percentage of Americans who feel chronically overworked: 30 Years of unused vacation time that American workers collectively give back to their employers each year: 1.6 million Percentage of women earning less than $40,000 per year who receive no paid vacation time at all: 37 Payment per episode that
Donald Trump receives to host The Apprentice: Average amount that companies spend to recruit a new CEO from outside the company: $2,000,000 Probability that the newly hired CEO will either quit or be fired within the first eighteen months: 1 in 2 Estimated number of people lined up outside the new M&M store set to open in Times Square responding to ads for "on-the-spot" hiring for 200 jobs, 65 of which were fulltime: between 5,000 and 6,000 Starting salary that drew them there: $10.75 per hour Fee Paris Hilton is seeking to host a New Year's Eve party in NYC, Miami, or L.A.: $100,000 plus a private jet Amount that Ms. Hilton is set to inherit from the Hilton Hotel fortune: $350 million Number of times that Congress has reduced the estate tax since it last raised the federal minimum wage: 9 Number of workers who would directly benefit from an increase in the minimum wage: 5.6 million Number of very large estates that would directly benefit from a reduction in the estate tax: 8,200 Number of households using credit to cover basic living expenses: 7 in 10 Amount in tax breaks and subsidies that last year's energy bill paid out to the gas and oil industry during a period of record profits and higher prices at the pump: $6 billion Campaign donations that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who voted for the energy bill, received from the oil and gas industry: $500,000, making her the top recipient of oil contributions in the 2006 election cycle Percentage of U.S. workers who are confident they will be able to live comfortably after retirement: 68 Percentage who have saved less than $25,000 toward their retirement: 53 Percent of African-American and Latino families that have zero or negative net worth, respectively: 31 and 38 Total Wal-Mart received in government subsidies, sometimes called "corporate welfare" by activists, in 2005: $3.75 billion Projected total in Christmas bonuses that the five largest investment banks in New York City will pay out in 2006: $36 billion Estimated additional amount U.S. workers would receive annually if all employers obeyed workplace laws: $19 billion Percentage increase in out-of-pocket medical expenses for the average American in the past 5 years: 93 Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $161 billion http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/article.php?ID=652 A family of three must have earned less than $15,577 in 2005 to be considered poor. 37 million people in America live below the poverty line, about the entire population of California. 43 percent of the poor live in "deep poverty" ? half the poverty line. The highest percentage living in "deep poverty" since the Census Department began recording this data in 1975. 35 million Americans went without food in 2005. This year, the USDA changed the official classification of this growing population from "food insecure with hunger" to "very low food security." The number of hungry Americans is nearly equal in size to the combined populations of Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia. In 2004, 13 million children, or 17.8 percent were poor. http://www.ActionLA.org HIGHER TAXED COUNTRIES DO BETTER CBC NEWS - People who live in countries with higher taxes enjoy lower rates of poverty, have more equal income distribution, more economic security for workers and can expect to live longer, suggests a new study from a left-leaning think tank. Written by two Toronto tax law professors for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the report, released Wednesday, is blunt. "Tax cuts are disastrous for the well-being of a nation's citizens," say authors Neil Brooks and Thaddeus Hwong. The study compares four high-tax Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland) with six low-tax Anglo-American countries (the U.K., U.S., Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand). http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/12/06/tax-policyalternatives.html CEOs EARN 262 TIMES PAY OF AVERAGE WORKER REUTERS - Chief executive officers in the United States earned 262 times the pay of an average worker in 2005, the second-highest level in the 40 years for which there is data, a nonprofit think-tank said on Wednesday. In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. . . In 1965, U.S. CEOs at major companies earned 24 times a worker's pay. That ratio surged in the 1990s and hit 300 at the end of the recovery in 2000, according to EPI.   KEVIN G. HALL MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS - Over the past quarter-century, and especially in the last 10 years, America's very rich have grown much richer. No one else fared as well. In 2004, the richest 1 percent of households - 719,910 of them, with an average annual income of $326,720 - had 19.8 percent of the entire nation's pretax income. That's up from 17.8 percent a year earlier, according to a study by University of California-Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez. The study, titled "The Evolution of Top Incomes," also found that the richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans - 129,584 households in 2004 - reported income equal to 9.5 percent of national pretax income. However, median, or midpoint, family income rose only 1.6 percent between 2001 and 2004, when adjusted for inflation, according to the Federal Reserve. Median family real net worth - a family's gross assets minus liabilities - rose only 1.5 percent during those four years. Those are very sluggish income-growth rates compared with the four years between 1998 and 2001, when median family income grew by 9.5 percent and median family real net worth grew by 10.3 percent. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15912820.htm STUDY: VALUE OF A STAY AT HOME MOM: $134,121 ABC NEWS - A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released on Wednesday. A mother who works outside the home would earn an extra $85,876 annually on top of her actual wages for the work she does at home, according to the study by Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts Salary.com. To reach the projected pay figures, the survey calculated the earning power of the 10 jobs respondents said most closely comprise a mother's role -- housekeeper, day-care teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive and psychologist. Employed mothers reported spending on average 44 hours a week at their outside job and 49.8 hours at their home job, while the stay-at-home mother worked 91.6 hours a week, it showed. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1916891 SAM ROBERTS, NY TIMES - Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland and Wyoming, which lost population to other states in the 1990's, have gained residents from elsewhere in the country since 2000. In five other states - Indiana, Minnesota, Utah, Mississippi and Oklahoma - the pattern was reversed: more people moved out than in from other states. . . In California, on average, 221,000 more people moved out every year than moved in from other states in the 1990's. From 2000 to 2004, the annual average net loss declined to 99,000 as more Californians moved inland from cities on the coast instead of moving to other states. San Bernardino has gained more migrants annually since 2000 than any other metropolitan area. CATHERINE KOMP, NEW STANDARD - According to a survey of 24 cities by the US Conference of Mayors, requests for emergency shelter assistance in 2005 increased by 6 percent. The survey also found the number of homeless families seeking shelter increased by about 5 percent, with about one in three reporting unmet needs due to a lack of existing shelter resources. http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3026
Figures converted to 2006 dollars JEN HABERKORN, WASHINGTON TIMES - The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. is climbing three times faster than the national average for all businesses, according to Census Bureau figures released yesterday. Hispanics owned almost 1.6 million companies in 2002, a 31 percent jump from five years earlier. By comparison, the total number of U.S. firms rose 10 percent to nearly 23 million companies. http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060321-093258-2932r  INCOME INEQUALITY GROWING CBPP - In most states, the gap between the highest-income families and poor and middle-income families grew significantly between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, according to a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. The incomes of the country's richest families have climbed substantially over the past two decades, while middle- and lower-income families have seen only modest increases. This trend is in marked contrast to the broadly shared increases in prosperity between World War II and the 1970s. In 38 states, the incomes of the bottom fifth of families grew more slowly than the incomes of the top fifth of families between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. In these 38 states, the incomes of the richest grew by an average of $45,800 (62 percent), while the incomes of the poorest grew by only $3,000 (21 percent) In only one state - Alaska - did the incomes of the low-income families grow faster than the incomes of the top fifth. In 39 states, the incomes of the middle fifth of families grew more slowly than the incomes of the top fifth of families between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. In no state did the income gap (degree of income inequality) between middle- and high-income families narrow during this period. Within the top fifth of families, the wealthiest families enjoyed the highest income growth over the past two decades. In the 11 states that are large enough to permit this calculation, the incomes of the top 5 percent of families rose between 66 percent and 132 percent during this period. This is faster than the income growth among the top fifth of families as a whole in these states- and much faster than the income growth among the bottom fifth of families in these states, which ranged from 11 percent to 24 percent. The five states with the largest income gap between the top and bottom fifths of families are New York, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, and Florida. Generally, income gaps are larger in the Southeast and Southwest and smaller in the Midwest, Great Plains, and Mountain states. Income gaps tend to be larger in states where incomes in the bottom fifth are below the national average, and to be smaller in states where incomes in the bottom fifth are above the national average. The five states with the largest income gaps between the top and middle fifths of families are Texas, Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, and Tennessee. http://www.cbpp.org/1-26-06sfp.htm HOUSING FORECLOSURES KIMBERLY BLANTON, BOSTON GLOBE - The number of foreclosure notices filed against Massachusetts homeowners last year reached their highest level since the housing bust of the early 1990s, as homeowners fell behind on their mortgages and lenders began the process of taking back the properties. Homeowners who stretched their finances to the limit to buy a home found it more difficult to make their payments on variable-rate mortgages as interest rates rose, but they were less able to refinance their loans at more attractive rates -- or sell and pay off their debts -- because the value of their homes fell or remained flat. . . Last year, there were almost 11,500 foreclosure filings in Massachusetts Land Court, where most notices are filed by banks and mortgage companies against the homeowners, according to Foreclosures Mass Corp., which compiles and tracks filings. That is a 32 percent increase from 2004, pushing the number of filings on record to its highest level since 1993, when a once-booming housing market was in a tailspin. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/01/30/housing_slowdown_squeezes_borrowers/ DAY LABORERS STEVEN GREENHOUSE, NY TIMES - The first nationwide study on day laborers has found that such workers are a nationwide phenomenon, with 117,600 people gathering at more than 500 hiring sites to look for work on a typical day. The survey found that three-fourths of day laborers were illegal immigrants and that more than half said employers had cheated them on wages in the previous two months. The study found that 49 percent of day laborers were employed by homeowners and 43 percent by construction contractors. They were found to be employed most frequently as construction laborers, landscapers, painters, roofers and drywall installers. HOMELESSNESS NATIONAL HOMELESS - In 2005, 71 percent of the 24 cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors reported a 6 percent increase in requests for emergency shelter. Even while the requests for emergency shelter have increased, cities do not have adequate shelter space to meet the need. In the 24 cities surveyed, an average of 14 percent of overall emergency shelter requests went unmet, with 32 percent of shelter requests by homeless families unmet. Over the course of the year, 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness. The number of people living on the streets threatens to grow as thousands of people are now homeless as a result of Hurricane Katrina. City ordinances frequently serve as a prominent tool to criminalize homelessness. Of the 224 cities surveyed for our report: 28% prohibit "camping" in particular public places in the city and 16% had city-wide prohibitions on "camping." 27% prohibit sitting/lying in certain public places. 39% prohibit loitering in particular public areas and 16% prohibit loitering city-wide. 43% prohibit begging in particular public places; 45% prohibit aggressive panhandling and 21% have city-wide prohibitions on begging. The trend of criminalizing homelessness appears to be growing. Of the 67 cities surveyed in both NCH and NLCHP's last joint report in 2002 and in this report: There is a 12% increase laws prohibiting begging in certain public places and an 18% increase in laws that prohibit aggressive panhandling. There is a 14% increase in laws prohibiting sitting or lying in certain public spaces. There is a 3% increase in laws prohibiting loitering, loafing, or vagrancy laws. Another trend documented in the report is increased city efforts to target homeless persons indirectly by placing restrictions on providers serving food to poor and homeless persons in public spaces. http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport/summary.html  OF THE MIDDLE CLASS  |
HISTORICAL STATS
