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Articles by Alec Friedhoff
State-level Data for Understanding Child Poverty
Why did child poverty fall in your state? Child poverty fell an unprecedented 59 percent over the past quarter century in the United States. Use this child poverty data tool to explore how poverty declined among children in your state from 1980 to today, alongside changes in economic and demographic conditions. The final graph shows the social safety net’s role in reducing child poverty.
A closer look at low-wage workers across the country
In a recent report, we found 53 million Americans ages 18 to 64—44% of all workers—earn low hourly wages. Their median hourly earnings are $10.22, and for those working full time year-round, median annual earnings are about $24,000. (Read how we define low-wage workers.) But these top-line numbers mask substantial variation among the workers themselves and among different regions of the country.
Metro Monitor 2020
Metro Monitor 2020 tracks the inclusive economic growth performance of the 192 largest U.S. metro areas, which together are home to 77% of the nation’s population and contribute 85% of the nation’s GDP. This year’s edition of the Metro Monitor analyzes two time periods: from 2008 to 2018, which indicates how metro areas have fared since the onset of the Great Recession; and from 2017 to 2018, the latest year of data available across all indicators.
Metro Monitor 2019: Inclusion remains elusive amid widespread metro growth and rising prosperity
What does a successful economy look like? Regular economic news coverage suggests that success is defined largely by growing U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), expanding jobs, falling unemployment, and rising stock prices. While those trends have been underway for the better part of a decade now, many Americans do not seem to feel that the economy is working well for them.
The devaluation of assets in Black neighborhoods
Homeownership lies at the heart of the American Dream, representing success, opportunity, and wealth. However, for many of its citizens, America deferred that dream. For much of the 20th century, the devaluing of Black lives led to segregation and racist federal housing policy through redlining that shut out chances for Black people to purchase homes and build wealth, making it more difficult to start and invest in businesses and afford college tuition.
Older industrial cities key to addressing rising regional inequality
The United States is about to enter its 10th year of economic expansion, dating back to the end of the Great Recession in June 2009. Job growth is robust, the unemployment rate is low, and median household income is at an all-time high. Yet there remains a strong sense, punctuated by the results of the 2016 presidential election, that many parts of the country have been left behind in the rising tide. Regional inequality is on the rise The evidence backs this up.
Economic inclusion may be the key to lasting growth and prosperity
The latest edition of the Brookings Metro Monitor paints a sobering picture of metropolitan economic progress. Few large metro areas achieved consistent progress across the Monitor’s three broad categories of economic growth (the size of the economy), prosperity (the quality of growth), and inclusion (the distribution of growth), in any of the three time periods the Monitor tracks (2015 to 2016, 2011 to 2016, and 2006 to 2016). This piqued our interest.
Which metros are achieving true economic success?
Like Punxsutawney Phil, President Trump emerged—not from a hole in the ground, but on Twitter—on Friday, February 2 to forecast many more months of #MAGA based on that morning’s jobs report: With 3.5 million Americans receiving bonuses or other benefits from their employers as a result of TAX CUTS, 2018 is off to great start! ✅Unemployment rate at 4.1%. ✅Average earnings up 2.9% in the last year. ✅200,000 new American jobs. ✅#MAGAð‡ºð‡¸ https://t.co/upqSvBhRqJ — Donald J.
Metro Monitor 2018
What the Metro Monitor measures Components of the Inclusive Growth Index Growth indicators measure change in the size of a metropolitan area economy and the economy’s level of entrepreneurial activity. Growth creates new opportunities for individuals and can help a metropolitan economy become more efficient.
Five maps show progress made, but mostly lost, on middle-class incomes in America
In September, the Census Bureau announced good news for the American middle class, courtesy of its Current Population Survey (CPS). Real median household income—that is, the income earned by a household squarely in the middle of the U.S. income distribution, adjusted for inflation—rose by 3.2 percent, the second consecutive year in which the measure increased. The trend likely reflected the effects of a tightening U.S. labor market that has drawn in more workers and put upward pressure on wages.
Three charts showing you poverty in U.S. cities and metro areas
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its annual report on income and poverty in the United States. It provided a lot of good news at the national level: from 2015 to 2016, median household income rose, and the poverty rate fell, finally returning to their levels from before the Great Recession. New census data released today, September 14, from its American Community Survey (ACS), indicate these gains were largely shared across most U.S. communities.
Trying to create more seats on the innovation rocket ship | Brookings Institution
Later this summer, 20 of San Diego’s innovative tech startups will gather for an event with all the trappings of a Silicon Valley-style tech extravaganza, including virtual reality headsets and drones. But instead of taking place at a downtown incubator or the University of California-San Diego’s oceanside campus, the gathering will occur at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, located in an area where 24 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Building Economic Flywheels | Brookings Institution
You’ll most commonly find a flywheel in a toy car. One push and the car’s wheels transfer energy to its flywheel, which, spinning continuously, powers the car for a greater distance than what one might expect. Setting the flywheel into motion converts a finite boost of energy into lasting momentum. It’s fitting that revitalization efforts in Detroit—the Motor City—are testing the potential of this concept.
Metro area unemployment trends buck the national narrative: A story of convergence, not divergence | Brookings Institution
There has been a lot of talk recently about regional divergence in the American economy and what to do for places left behind, especially in the industrial Heartland. Judging by one important economic indicator, however, economic outcomes around the country are actually more similar than they were in the past. In May 2017, the U.S. unemployment rate dipped to 4.3 percent.
The surprisingly short list of US metro areas achieving inclusive economic growth
In research and strategy circles around economic growth and development, the concept of “inclusive growth” is all the rage Internationally, organizations including the OECD, World Bank, World Economic Forum, Asian Development Bank, and United Nations Development Program have recently sponsored reports and initiatives devoted to promoting inclusive growth.
The surprisingly short list of US metro areas achieving inclusive economic growth
In research and strategy circles around economic growth and development, the concept of “inclusive growth” is all the rage Internationally, organizations including the OECD, World Bank, World Economic Forum, Asian Development Bank, and United Nations Development Program have recently sponsored reports and initiatives devoted to promoting inclusive growth.
Three maps that show how US metro economies are doing
The U.S. economy is now in its 93rd consecutive month of growth, the third longest expansion on record. It has added jobs for 76 straight months, at a robust pace of 200,000 jobs per month. The unemployment rate stands at 4.8 percent, near its pre-recession level. Of course, this expansion has followed the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
Metro Monitor - 2017
METRO MONITOR An index of inclusive economic growth in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas As 2017 begins, the economy is, by most conventional measures, in remarkable condition. After years of slow but steady recovery following the Great Recession, the United States is currently poised to continue one of its longest economic expansions on record.
How big (or small) is your city’s middle class?
Have American cities lost their middle class? The recent unrest in Baltimore caused some to (inaccurately) portray that city as overwhelmingly poor. Meanwhile, rising inequality and rapid gentrification in places like San Francisco and Seattle raise the concern that some cities are becoming exclusive enclaves for the wealthy. Yet it turns out that many U.S. cities still retain a sizable middle class, at least judged by national standards.
Metro Monitor - July 2015
The Metro Monitor tracks the performance of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas on four indicators: jobs, unemployment, output (gross product), and house prices. The analysis of these indicators is focused on change during three time periods: the recession, the recovery, and the combination of the two (recession + recovery).
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