RECESSION IN U.S.

RECESSION

RECESSION PERIOD

What Happened To Earnings During the Recession?

On September 22, 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau released the latest findings from the annual American Community Survey. The American Human Development Projects analysis of these data reveal the ways in which the Great Recession impacted the earnings of different groups of Americans. The image below shows the change in earnings for men and women over time (updated from The Measure of America 2010-2011).

These resources show changes in median personal earnings between 2007 and 2010 by gender, race and ethnicity, and educational levels

According to Henry Aaron

"My reaction is possibly, but improbably. That said, it's pushing policy in exactly the wrong direction. At a time when the economy still needs a stimulus to promote recovery rather than restrictive policies to prevent overheating. I think job one economically today is to restore full employment, that is today's problem. Tomorrow's problem will be to deal with long term budget imbalances, but trying to curb long term budget imbalances now carries the high probability of delaying economic recovery and the possibility of turning recovery into decline and, were that to happen, it would be a major misfortune for the nation." Henry Aaron, senior fellow of economic studies at the Brookings Institution

 "In my view it will have a noticeable hit on the growth rate of between 0.5 and 0.9 percentage points. That won't put us in a recession but it will definitely slow improvements to unemployment and the job market."