And in new signs of economic distress among the middle class, median household incomes adjusted for inflation declined by 2.3 percent in 2010 from the previous year to $49,400. That was 7 percent less than the peak of $53,252 in 1999.
The report comes as President Obama gears up to pass a jobs bill, and analysts said the bleak numbers could help him make his case for urgency. But they could also be used against him by Republican opponents seeking to highlight economic shortcomings under his watch as the election season gets under way.
“This is one more piece of bad news on the economy,’’ said Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution. “This will be another cross to bear by the administration.’’
The annual report by the Census Bureau offered a portrait of the US economy one year into the economic recovery. Its findings, which included figures for poverty, median income, and the number of uninsured Americans, were bleaker than many economists expected and reinforced the worry that the economy has a long way to go before middle-class families feel any improvement.
“A full year into recovery, there were no signs of it affecting the well-being of a typical American family,’’ said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard. “By late 2010, the economy was sort of dead in the water, and that’s where it’s remained.’’
Joblessness was the driving force pushing more Americans into poverty, economists said. Last year, about 86 million people of working age did not work even one week out of the year, Renwick said, up from 83 million in 2009, a trend of increasing long-term joblessness that economists say puts families at greater economic risk.
‘’Once you’ve been out of work for a long time, it’s a very difficult road to get back,’’ Katz said.
Median household income fell across all working-age categories, but it was sharpest among the youngest Americans, ages 15 to 24, who experienced a decline of 9 percent.
