A report released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday shows that the number of Americans living below poverty level has risen for the first time in years.
In 2022, 12.4 percent of the population lived at or below poverty level, according to USA Today.
That was a sharp increase from 2021, when 7.8 percent lived in poverty.
And once again, increases in pay have failed to keep pace with inflation, according to the New York Post.
Inflation-adjusted median household income fell by 2.3 percent from 2021 to 2022, going from $76,330 to $74,580, according to data from Census Bureau.
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It has fallen by 4.7 percent since its high point in 2019, a year before Biden took office.
Today’s cover: In Biden’s war on poverty, poverty — especially for kids — is winning https://t.co/v2EZ31VAfo pic.twitter.com/yOnOrgPma1
— New York Post (@nypost) September 14, 2023
Biden confidently claimed two years after becoming president that, “It’s clearer than ever that my economic plan is working,” according to CNBC.
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He pointed to slower inflation as evidence of success, but prices have continued to rise.
Even at that point, the Consumer Price Index was 6.5 percent higher than it had been just a year before, as shown in a report released by the Labor Department.
As of January, inflation had risen 13.7 percent since Biden took office, according to the New York Post.
“Bidenomics,” the common term for his economic policy plan, has had time to prove its merit, and many people report feeling poorer for it.
New Yorker Recess Hyde, 34, told the Post that he already works two jobs to pay the bills, and he has begun researching restaurant menus before choosing a place for a date, to make sure he can afford it.
“I’ve cut back on girls,” Hyde said bluntly.
Some Americans are forced to resort to more extreme measures to get by.
Brooklyn resident Tselane Stevens, 62, told the Post that after not getting a raise during three years of major inflation, she had to get groceries from a food bank.
She also had to ask her family for money just to pay rent.
The number of Americans taking second jobs — or even third jobs — to fill the financial gaps has increased, according to the Daily Caller.
In addition, the number of Americans settling for part-time work when they wanted full-time work has increased.
“Since June, the trend has emerged that employers are increasingly unable to provide full-time jobs, resulting in the creation of comparably more part-time jobs instead,” according to the report.
The outlet quoted economist Peter Earle as saying the signs point to consumers being “under duress.”
“[I]n the face of growing uncertainty about the prospects for growth in coming quarters, some business owners are probably hiring cautiously,” he said. “That shows up, at times, as a shift from hiring full-time to hiring part-time workers.”
