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Which Areas in America Are Worse Off Since 2016? nyti.ms/2wdT3ph
Five percent of Americans live in counties where two of three key economic measures were worse in 2019 than 2016.
By March 16, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
Although economists now expect that the coronavirus will lead to a major recession, the American economy improved steadily for nearly a decade, under both President Obama and President Trump.
Gains have been widespread since 2016, when Mr. Trump was elected, with the lowest-wage industries and workers seeing the biggest wage gains. And yet not all of America is better off.
Five percent of Americans live in counties where the economy was worse off in 2019 than in 2016, on at least two of three key economic measures.
“The American economy is both riding a record-breaking expansion and adrift in a decade of lost progress. Which truth applies depends on your zip code.
A large and rapidly growing share of the population lives in thriving areas. The post-recession economy has delivered phenomenal economic growth and rising prosperity for degree holders, professional workers, and communities with spending power. But an economy that only works for the college-educated and the places they congregate is not an economy that works.
The ruddy national economic outlook risks breeding complacency. It should not. The median American community has not healed from the trauma of the Great Recession and is ill-equipped to cope with the inevitable next downturn. This period of national prosperity is our chance to reinvest in communities and rekindle the economy’s dynamic forces. Policymakers should strive to make opportunity more accessible, healthy risk-taking more viable, markets more competitive, and people more empowered to choose and shape their communities.”