U.S. Households Still Getting Much Poorer

September 24, 2009 (LPAC)—Economists in Washington have projected that the average American household's real income is in the process of falling by a huge 9.3% (-$4,813/year) from 2007-2010, taking households back to early- to mid-1990s level income. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) projects that the average household has already had its income cut by 8.1% (-$4,212/year) from July 2007 to now. This is the largest income drop since the Great Depression, and has occurred simultaneously with a loss of wealth by households, of $6 trillion, or $50,000 per household in the United States.

The Institute's projection comes from Census Bureau reports already released, which cover only the milder period of this economic collapse, mid-2007 to mid-2008. As far as poverty of households is concerned, the EPI projects that the national poverty rate will increase to 15.1% by early 2010, even against the extremely low income measure of the official "poverty line"; that child poverty is increasing by 8.6% to 26.6% of all American children in poverty in early 2010; and that the poverty rate among Black Americans is increasing by 7.3% to 31.8%!

The heads of these households are not finding work, despite constant claims of an "economic turn-around" by the Obama White House. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today that long-term unemployment (joblessness for more than 27 weeks while actively seeking work) in August reached 3.2% of the entire U.S. civilian workforce, the highest level in BLS-data history, and well above the 1981 recession peak of 2.6% of labor force.

Of course this is only that fraction of long-term unemployed officially recorded as such and receiving state or fed benefits (5.1 million workers). The real number includes 6 million others who've given up and dropped out of the labor force, and others who don't receive benefits; it is near 8% of the whole workforce, who've wanted a job and been unable to find one for more than six months.

In August, the number of job seekers per available job reached 6.2 [!] and rising—again, a record—from 1.7 two years ago.