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N.J.’s middle class shrinking under growing income gap, Census data shows
Published: Friday, September 21, 2012, 6:30 AM Updated: Friday, September 21, 2012, 9:08 AM
By Stacy Jones and Stephen Stirling/The Star-Ledger
New Jersey’s middle class has eroded in the last four years, further polarizing a state where the rich and the poor have long been miles apart on levels of income, if not on the map, new Census data shows.
A Star-Ledger analysis of four years of data from the American Community Survey shows the percentage of households with an annual income between $35,000 and $150,000 has dipped by nearly 3 percent since 2008, while the percentage of those richer and poorer has increased.
That accounts for about 79,000 people in the state leaving the middle class, according to New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning think tank.
“I’m very concerned that last year was probably one of the worst years in half-a-century for the state,” said Ramon Castro, a senior policy analyst at NJPP. “It may well be that we’ve reached our peak but … my concern is that New Jersey is more vulnerable than other states.”
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/09/njs_middle_class_is_shrinking.html#incart_river_default
