Recent Trends in the Material Well-Being of the Working Class in America

I examine trends in the material well-being of working-class households using data from the Current Population Survey in the two decades surrounding the Great Recession. In the years leading up to the Great Recession, average earnings, homeownership, and insurance coverage all fell, and absolute poverty and food insecurity accelerated. After-tax incomes were, for the most part, stagnant. The economic hemorrhaging either abated or reversed, however, in the decade after the Great Recession, especially for the least skilled and for households headed by a Hispanic person. This includes robust earnings growth, which led to declines in earnings inequality, absolute poverty, and food insecurity, coupled with increased insurance coverage and a modest rebound in after-tax incomes. As many of these recent advances likely stalled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I discuss various policy options.

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Disparate Recoveries: Wealth, Race, and the Working Class after the Great Recession

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/00027162211028822 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 695 (1) ◽

pp. 173-192

Author(s):

Fenaba R. Addo ◽

William A. Darity

Keyword(s):

Middle Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Great Recession ◽

Wealth Inequality ◽

Net Worth ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Consumer Finances ◽

White Working Class ◽

Using Data ◽

The Relationship

What does it mean to be working class in a society of extreme racial wealth inequality? Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we investigate the wealth holdings of Black, Latinx, and white working-class households during the post–Great Recession (pre–COVID-19) period that spanned 2010 to 2019. We then explore the relationship between working-class and middle-class attainment using a wealth-based metric. We find that, in terms of their net worth, fewer Black working-class households benefitted from the economic recovery than white working-class households. Among white households, the working class saw the greatest increase in wealth in both absolute and relative terms. Working-class households were less likely to be middle class as defined by their wealth holdings, and Black and Latinx households were also less likely to be middle class. For Black households, racial identity is a stronger predictor of wealth attainment than occupational sector.

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Policies to Help the Working Class in the Aftermath of COVID-19: Lessons from the Great Recession

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/00027162211031772 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 695 (1) ◽

pp. 314-330

Author(s):

Richard V. Burkhauser ◽

Kevin Corinth ◽

Douglas Holtz-Eakin

Keyword(s):

Working Class ◽

Great Recession ◽

Well Being ◽

Safety Net ◽

Social Safety Net ◽

Slow Recovery ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Earnings Losses ◽

Persistent Unemployment ◽

Economic Well Being

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated government-mandated shutdowns caused a historic shock to the U.S. economy and a disproportionate job loss concentrated among the working class. While an unprecedented social safety net policy response successfully offset earnings losses among lower-wage workers, the risk of continued and persistent unemployment remains higher among the working class. The key lesson from the Great Recession is that strong economic growth and a hot labor market do more to improve the economic well-being of the working class and historically disadvantaged groups than a slow recovery that relies on safety net policies to help replace lost earnings. Thus, the best way to prevent a “k-shaped” recovery is to ensure that safety net policies do not interfere with a return to the strong pre-pandemic economy once the health risk subsides and that progrowth policies that incentivize business investment and hiring are maintained.

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A Decade of Analysis: Household Food Insecurity Among Low-Income Immigrant Children

Journal of Family Issues ◽

10.1177/0192513x16661216 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 527-551 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Stephanie Potochnick ◽

Irma Arteaga

Keyword(s):

Food Insecurity ◽

Low Income ◽

Great Recession ◽

Recovery Period ◽

National Level ◽

Racial Groups ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Households With Children ◽

Using Data ◽

Low Income Households

Our study advances literature on immigrant food insecurity by examining whether national-level differences in immigrant and nonimmigrant families’ risk of food insecurity persist across time and for different ethnic/racial groups. Using data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement for low-income households with children aged 0 to 17 years, we examine trends (2003-2013) in immigrant and nonimmigrant food insecurity overall and for different ethnic/racial groups. We also assess how immigrant families are faring compared with their nonimmigrant peers in the wake of the Great Recession and its prolonged recovery period. We find that among low-income households with children, noncitizen immigrant households and their U.S.-born household counterparts experience similar levels of food insecurity, while citizen immigrant households demonstrate the lowest levels of food insecurity. Citizen immigrant households, however, appear to have been most affected by the Great Recession and the protective influences of citizenship status do not appear to extend to Hispanic immigrants.

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The Economic Status of People with Disabilities and Their Families since the Great Recession

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/00027162211022693 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 695 (1) ◽

pp. 123-142

Author(s):

Leila Bengali ◽

Mary C. Daly ◽

Olivia Lofton ◽

Robert G. Valletta

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Great Recession ◽

Population Survey ◽

Economic Status ◽

People With Disabilities ◽

Well Being ◽

Annual Income ◽

Disability Benefits ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Using Data

People with disabilities face substantial barriers to sustained employment and stable, adequate income. We assess how they and their families fared during the long economic expansion that followed the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, using data from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) and the March CPS annual income supplement. We find that the expansion bolstered the well-being of people with disabilities and, in particular, their labor market engagement. We also find that federal disability benefits fell during the expansion. On balance, our results suggest that sustained economic growth can bolster the labor market engagement of people with disabilities and potentially reduce their reliance on disability benefits.

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Foreclosure spillovers and individual well‐being: Evidence from the great recession

Real Estate Economics ◽

10.1111/1540-6229.12356 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Christos A. Makridis ◽

Michael Ohlrogge

Keyword(s):

Great Recession ◽

Well Being ◽

The Great Recession

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Measuring the availability of “good jobs” in the United States for working-class men during the Great Recession and recovery

10.31235/osf.io/tn64k ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Janette Dill ◽

Robert Francis

Keyword(s):

Working Class ◽

Great Recession ◽

Food Service ◽

The United States ◽

Job Quality ◽

Full Time ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Predicted Probability ◽

Time Work ◽

The Impact

In this study, we use the 2004, 2008, and 2014 panels of the Survey for Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to measure the impact of the Great Recession and recovery on the availability of “good jobs” for men without a college degree. We define “good jobs” using a cluster of job quality measures, including wage thresholds of at least $15, $20, or $25 per hour, employer-based health insurance, full-time work hours, and protection from layoff. We find that the Great Recession and aftermath (2008-2015) resulted in a 1-10% reduced probability of being in a “good job” across most industries, with especially large losses in manufacturing, retail, transportation, and food service (compared to 2004-2007). In the 2014 panel, there is only a slight post-recession recovery in the predicted probability of being in a “good job,” and the probability of being in a “good job” remains well below 2004 levels. Although the probability of being on layoff from a “good jobs” does decrease substantially in the 2014 cohort as compared to the rate of layoff during the Great Recession, our clustered measure of job quality shows that access to “good jobs” remains limited for most working-class men and that the recovery from the Recession has largely not reached the working-class.

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The Differential Incidence and Severity of Food Insecurity by Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Groups over the Great Recession in the United States

AEA Papers and Proceedings ◽

10.1257/pandp.20181106 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 108 ◽

pp. 379-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes ◽

Hugo B. Jales ◽

Judith Liu ◽

Norbert L. Wilson

Keyword(s):

Food Insecurity ◽

Great Recession ◽

Decomposition Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Structural Factors ◽

Immigrant Status ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Extensive And Intensive Margins ◽

Race Ethnicity ◽

Racial Ethnic

We document the differences in food insecurity incidence and severity by race/ethnicity and immigrant status over the Great Recession. We show that the disadvantaged groups with a higher incidence of food insecurity do not necessarily have a higher severity of food insecurity, which underscores the importance of examining both the extensive and intensive margins of food insecurity. Our decomposition analysis indicates that the contribution of compositional and structural factors to the observed differences in exposure to food insecurity is heterogeneous across these groups and over the Great Recession. Finally, SNAP does not seem to fundamentally change the patterns documented.

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Recent Trends in U.S. Childbearing Intentions

10.31235/osf.io/zxg2a ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Caroline Sten Hartnett ◽

Alison Gemmill

Keyword(s):

National Survey ◽

Great Recession ◽

Population Composition ◽

Important Contributor ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Childbearing Intentions ◽

Family Growth ◽

Recent Trends ◽

Shed Light ◽

The U.S

The U.S. period TFR has declined steadily since the Great Recession, to 1.73 children in 2018, the lowest level since the 1970s. This pattern could mean that current childbearing cohorts will end up with fewer children than previous cohorts or this same pattern could be an artifact of a tempo distortion if individuals are simply postponing births they plan to eventually have. In this research note, we use data on current parity and future intended births from the 2006-2017 National Survey of Family Growth to shed light on this issue. We find that total intended parity declined (from 2.26 in 2006-2010 to 2.16 children in 2013-2017), and the proportion of women intending to remain childless increased slightly. Decomposition indicated that the decline was not due to changes in population composition, but rather changes in the subgroup rates themselves. The decline in intended parity is particularly notable at young ages and among Latinxs. These results indicate that although tempo distortion is likely an important contributor to the decline in TFR, it is not the sole explanation: U.S. individuals are intending to have fewer children than their immediate predecessors, which may translate into a decline in cohort completed parity. However, the change in intended parity is modest and average intended parity remains above two children.

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