After years of stagnant income, American families are at last catching a break.
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Median household income surged to $56,516 past year, from $53,718 in 2014, the first annual increase since 2007, before the recession started, the Census Bureau said on Tuesday.
However, the statement noted that household incomes remained 1.6 per cent lower than in 2007, the year before the global financial crisis, and were 2.4 per cent lower than a peak in 1999. The unemployment rate fell from 6.2 percent to 5.3 percent past year, and 2.4 million Americans found full-time, year-round jobs.
Americans earned $53,700 in 2014 and $56,500 in 2015, an increase of 5.2 percent.
Median household incomes just surged for the first time since 2007, according to the latest US Census report on income and poverty in the US. The poverty rate for those living in metro areas but outside the principle cities also dropped from 11.8 percent to 10.8 percent, while the rate in principle cities dropped from 18.9 percent to 16.8 percent. Overall, there were 3.5 million fewer Americans living below the poverty threshold than in 2014. “The better income figures reflect the strengthening jobs market, which has been ongoing for several years now”, John Rizzo, chief economist for the Long Island Association, the region’s largest business group.
The poorest Americans saw the biggest income gain, the Census report found, driven by widespread increases in the minimum wage and increasing competition for low-wage jobs.
Even employer surveys show that most haven’t planned to pay more, though the Census Bureau numbers show otherwise. The difference between the 1.6 percent change and the 2.4 percent change was not statistically significant. The median income for white Americans went up 4.4%, while that of black Americans went up by 4.1% and that of Hispanic Americans went up by 6.1%.
A person walks dogs on Mount Davidson overlooking San Francisco in the early morning hours of March 21, 2014. Those in the bottom fifth income group saw their incomes rise the fastest in 2015.
“Too many Americans are still struggling to provide for their families and reach their full potential”, said Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, Texas Republican.
The poverty rate was 13.5 percent in 2015. The Pew Research Center found previous year that the country is at a tipping point where the middle class population may soon fall to less than 50 percent of the USA adult population. A big chunk of that new employment was in the blue state of California, which, according to the Department of Finance, contributed about 17 percent of new employment, though it represents only about 11 percent of the USA population.
Nebraska also saw the percentage of people without health insurance fall to 8.2 percent in 2015, down from 9.7 percent in 2014.
The data released Tuesday was widely anticipated because evidence from other sources suggested it was likely to show a strong increase in household incomes past year.
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But Stephen Moore says people need to take precaution for not to be disappointed because, in his view, the 2015 increase could fade in 2016.
