U.S. household income posts record surge in 2015, poverty falls | Reuters: "Chris Christopher, head of consumer economics for IHS Global Insight, said he expected incomes to continue to gain ground through 2017 with higher employment and modest inflation. The unemployment rate has declined from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009 to 4.9 percent last month.
With incomes rising, the number of people living in poverty fell 3.5 million to 43.1 million last year. That pushed the 2015 poverty rate down to 13.5 percent from 14.8 percent in 2014.
The poverty rate has continued to edge down since hitting a 17-year high in 2010. The latest drop is the largest percentage point decline since 1999, Census officials said.
In another encouraging sign, the number of residents without health insurance dropped to 29 million last year from 33 million in 2014. Nearly 91 percent of people in the United States had health coverage, up from 89.6 percent the previous year.
"The three key indicators of well-being ... all moved decisively in the right direction in 2015 - the first time that has occurred in nearly two decades," said Robert Greenstein, president of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
An alternative measure of poverty that takes into account non-cash benefits, including food stamps and refundable tax credits, fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 14.3 percent.
Analysts cautioned against reading too much into this still-high supplemental poverty rate because it reflects the withdrawal of generous benefits put in place during and immediately after the recession to cushion families.
Women working full-time saw a boost in earnings last year, with the median income rising 2.7 percent to $40,742. The median income for men working full-time increased 1.5 percent to $51,212. The gains for both genders were the biggest since 2009.
Despite the broad-based gains, there was little progress in reducing income inequality.
"Economic recovery finally started arriving for tens of millions of American families over the past year. We should make sure the economy is nurtured going forward, and not subverted by bad policy decisions," said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington."
So, in essence America got it's first raise in 9 years and it amounted to $40/month +/-. Now, how about doing the fuzzy math on C level officers, the U6 population, Seniors on fixed income, healthcare costs, inflation data using things like milk and bread....and while your about it, change the calculator back to the earlier interpolated calculation. Hmmmmm...guess we didn't get a raise and can't live on $3,000/month after taxes, but wait a minute, stock market hit all time highs! and the median price for a home hit all time highs! Things must be great!
What's wrong with this picture!
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With incomes rising, the number of people living in poverty fell 3.5 million to 43.1 million last year. That pushed the 2015 poverty rate down to 13.5 percent from 14.8 percent in 2014.
The poverty rate has continued to edge down since hitting a 17-year high in 2010. The latest drop is the largest percentage point decline since 1999, Census officials said.
In another encouraging sign, the number of residents without health insurance dropped to 29 million last year from 33 million in 2014. Nearly 91 percent of people in the United States had health coverage, up from 89.6 percent the previous year.
"The three key indicators of well-being ... all moved decisively in the right direction in 2015 - the first time that has occurred in nearly two decades," said Robert Greenstein, president of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
An alternative measure of poverty that takes into account non-cash benefits, including food stamps and refundable tax credits, fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 14.3 percent.
Analysts cautioned against reading too much into this still-high supplemental poverty rate because it reflects the withdrawal of generous benefits put in place during and immediately after the recession to cushion families.
Women working full-time saw a boost in earnings last year, with the median income rising 2.7 percent to $40,742. The median income for men working full-time increased 1.5 percent to $51,212. The gains for both genders were the biggest since 2009.
Despite the broad-based gains, there was little progress in reducing income inequality.
"Economic recovery finally started arriving for tens of millions of American families over the past year. We should make sure the economy is nurtured going forward, and not subverted by bad policy decisions," said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington."
So, in essence America got it's first raise in 9 years and it amounted to $40/month +/-. Now, how about doing the fuzzy math on C level officers, the U6 population, Seniors on fixed income, healthcare costs, inflation data using things like milk and bread....and while your about it, change the calculator back to the earlier interpolated calculation. Hmmmmm...guess we didn't get a raise and can't live on $3,000/month after taxes, but wait a minute, stock market hit all time highs! and the median price for a home hit all time highs! Things must be great!
What's wrong with this picture!
'via Blog this'
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