Well before the onset of the current economic downturn, middle-income families in the United States complained of growing difficulty making ends meet. According to Jared Bernstein, they were feeling squeezed for a simple reason: they were squeezed. Although GDP grew by 15 percent in real terms between 2000 and 2006, the rnmedian worker's real earnings fell by 0.7 percent during the same period. Real median household earnings actually declined by 5 percent between 2000 and 2006, the steeper drop reflecting a reduction in hours worked.
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