Post Date:
January 16, 2020 Issue Date:
February 1, 2020

By the numbers

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More income, more debt

$923

Median weekly earnings of wage and salary workers in the third quarter of 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Earnings have risen steadily since the fourth quarter of 2017, when median weekly earnings stood at $854. Meanwhile, the BLS reported that the unemployment rate in November fell to 3.5 percent, a 50-year low as the U.S. economy added 266,000 jobs. A Dow Jones survey of economists had predicted an increase of 180,000 jobs.

29.6%

The combined federal income and payroll tax burden on a single childless worker in 2018, according to the Tax Foundation. (Families often face lower burdens.) The burden fell 2.2 percent from 2017, which the Tax Foundation attributed to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

11.8%

The U.S. poverty rate in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. The rate was down from 12.3 percent in 2017 and has been dropping since 2014.

704

The average FICO credit score in 2018, an all-time high and an increase of 14 points since 2008.

$13.95 trillion

The total amount of U.S. personal debt in the third quarter of 2019, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Personal debt has increased for 21 consecutive quarters.