'U.S. Income Gap Rose'

'U.S. Income Gap Rose':
This probably won't be a surprise:

U.S. Income Gap Rose, Sign of Uneven Recovery, by Sabrina Tavernise, NY Times:
The income gap between the wealthiest 20 percent of American households and the
rest of the country grew sharply in 2011, the Census Bureau reported, as an
overwhelming majority of Americans saw no gains from a weak economic recovery in
its second full year.

Income for the top fifth of American households rose by 1.6 percent last year,
driven by even larger increases for the top 5 percent of households... All
households in the middle of the scale saw declines, while those at the very
bottom stagnated.

“You’re really struck by the unevenness of the recovery,” said Lawrence Katz, an
economics professor at Harvard. “The top end took a whack in the recession, but
they’ve gotten back on their feet. Everyone else is still down for the count.”

The numbers helped drive an overall decline in income for the typical American
family. Median household income after inflation fell to $50,054, a level that
was 8 percent lower than in 2007, the year before the recession took hold. ...

The Census Bureau reported that a standard measure of income inequality, the
Gini index, registered the first year-on-year increase since 1993, a surprise
for economists who say the measure, which has been rising for some time, usually
changes so slowly that a statistically significant rise over the course of one
calendar year is rare. ...

Inflation-adjusted median household income fell by 1.5 percent in 2011. During
the recovery, about 3 in 5 of the new jobs created have been low-skill and
low-wage — taking people off the unemployment rolls and pulling some families
out of poverty, but not providing a clear route to the middle class. ...