The Great Recession has touched virtually every American. This Pew Research Center series of survey-based reports documents how the downturn shrank paychecks, shattered budgets, drained savings accounts, changed spending and borrowing habits and pushed long-term unemployment to historic levels.
The Demographics of the Jobs Recovery
Hispanics and Asians are gaining jobs at a faster rate in the economic recovery than are blacks and whites, immigrants are outpacing the native born, and men are faring better than women.
The Boomerang Generation
If there’s supposed to be a stigma attached to living with mom and dad through one’s late twenties or early thirties, today’s “boomerang generation” didn’t get that memo.
Young, Underemployed and Optimistic
Young adults hit hard by the recession. A plurality of the public believes young adults, rather than middle-aged or older adults, are having the toughest time in today’s economy.
In a Down Economy, Fewer Births
A sharp decline in fertility rates in the United States that started in 2008 is closely linked to the souring of the economy that began about the same time, according to a new analysis of multiple economic and demographic data sources.
Fighting Poverty in a Bad Economy, Americans Move in with Relatives
Without public debate or fanfare, large numbers of Americans enacted their own anti-poverty program in the depths of the Great Recession: They moved in with relatives.
No Consensus About Whether Nation Is Divided Into ’Haves’ and ’Have-Nots’
Despite an extended economic downturn, the public’s impression of whether the nation is economically divided remains relatively stable.
Childhood Poverty Among Hispanics Sets Record, Leads Nation
The spread of poverty across the United States that began at the onset of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and accelerated last year hit one fast-growing demographic group especially hard: Latino children.
Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics
The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from 2009.
Two Years of Economic Recovery: Women Lose Jobs, Men Find Them
During the sluggish two-year recovery from the Great Recession, men have gained 768,000 jobs while women have lost 218,000 jobs. This new gender gap in employment trends represents a sharp turnabout from the recession itself, when men lost more than twice as many jobs as women.
One Recession, Two Americas
For a narrow majority of Americans (55%), the Great Recession brought a mix of hardships, usually in combination: a spell of unemployment, missed mortgage or rent payments, shrinking paychecks and shattered household budgets, but for the other 45% of the country, the recession was largely free of such difficulties.