U.S. household income up by 5.2% in 2015 but still poorer than it was 15 years ago

The Middle-class Americans and the poor American families have experience their first gain in eight years. The Census Bureau reported Tuesday, that the median household income rose 5.2% from a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation, or $2,800, to $56,500. The rise broke a long streak of disappointment for American workers but did not fully repair the damage inflicted by the Great Recession. The household incomes now is around 1.6% below the 2007 level, before the last recession began, and around 2.4% below the all-time high reached in 1999.

Officials at the Census Bureau said that the 5.2% growth rate was not statistically distinguishable from five other previous increases in the data over a 50-year period, most recently the 3.7 percent jump from 1997 to 1998.

There are some statistics that suggested that the year 2015 was strong for US workers. Just last week, the Agriculture Department reported their yearly data on hunger in the United States. It shows that food insecurity declined substantially last year for the first time since the recession.

Economic growth has lagged in 2016, but the labor market has remained strong, suggesting continued income gains. The unemployment rate declined to 4.9% last month. Adjusted for inflation, wages for full-time workers were up by nearly 2% in the first half of the year, compared with the same point in 2015.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index is down from last year.

US 'unemployment rate' drops to 4-year low of 7.7 percent as 'people stop looking for jobs'

The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to its lowest since December 2008 at 7.7 percent, primarily because more people stopped looking for work.

US Labor Department said that hiring remained steady during the storm Sandy and in the face of looming tax increases. But the government said employers added 49,000 fewer jobs in October and September than it initially estimated.

Latino jobless numbers held steady at 10 percent, after dropping slightly in September, from 11.4 to 9.9 percent.

It said that the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low in November from 7.9 percent in October mostly because more people stopped looking for work and weren't counted as unemployed, the New York Daily News reports.


The report "is something of a mixed bag but, on balance, it's a positive," said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics.

According to the report, Sandy's effect on the figures was much smaller many analysts had predicted. The government noted that as long as employees worked at least one day during a pay period - two weeks for most people - its survey would have counted them as employed.

Still, there were signs that the storm disrupted economic activity. Construction employment dropped 20,000. And weather prevented 369,000 people from getting to work, the report said.
Ashworth also said that while there is "no obvious impact from the looming fiscal cliff yet, it could still have a greater effect on December's figures."