Monday, January 27, 2014

Household Income Stable in December 2013

That's a wrap, folks. Yet another month of income stability brings 2013 to an end with no change in median household income, according to estimates by Sentier Research. The December 2013 median of $52,297 is not statistically different from last month's median or the median in December 2012, after adjusting for inflation. Sentier's median household income estimates come from the Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Survey, providing a preview of the official annual figure that will be released by the bureau next summer. Now you know (before everyone else) that median household income in 2013 will be pretty much the same as it was in 2012.

Although median household income has not changed significantly in the past year, the December 2013 median was 2.4 percent higher than than the $51,079 of August 2011—the low point in Sentier's household income series. "We still have a significant amount of ground to make up to get back to where we were before," says Sentier's Gordon Green, "but at least we have shown some improvement since the low point." 

Median household income in December 2013 was 4.7 percent below the median of June 2009, the end of the Great Recession. It was 6.4 percent lower than the median in December 2007, the start of the Great Recession. It was 7.5 percent lower than the January 2000 median.


Source: Sentier Research, Household Income Trends Series: December 2013

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