It isn’t just the unemployed

It isn’t just the unemployed

by digby

The latest on pay from David Kay Johnston

There were fewer jobs and they paid less last year, except at the very top where, the number of people making more than $1 million increased by 20 percent over 2009.

The median paycheck — half made more, half less — fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999.

The number of Americans with any work fell again last year, down by more than a half million from 2009 to less than 150.4 million.

More significantly, the number of people with any work has fallen by 5.2 million since 2007, when the worst recession since the Great Depression began, with a massive taxpayer bailout of Wall Street following in late 2008.

This is why people get frantic in this economy even when they are employed. Not only is it nearly impossible to leave a job they hate, they are falling behind even though they are working as hard as ever. And if they have any debt, this picture looks even worse.

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