Although America’s post-pandemic economic recovery has been robust by many key measures, it’s also increasingly uneven and inequitable.
With good reason, economists are increasingly referring to it as “K-shaped”: Those with more resources are gaining, those with fewer are losing ground, and persistent economic disparities are getting worse. While wage growth for the highest and lowest income earners was strong and roughly equal two years ago, there’s now a full percentage-point gap between them. The gender wage gap has reversed recent gains and widened over the past two years to become the largest since 2017. While overall unemployment is a historically strong 4%, Black unemployment has risen significantly over the past four months — from 6% to 7.5%.
