American incomes have fallen during the "recovery" according to this story:
Real median annual household income fell to $53,508 from $54,916 during the 18-month recession from December 2007 to June 2009, according to the firm’s [Sentier Research LLC] study of income data for the 36-month period ended in June 2012. Incomes kept falling during the 36-month period since then, dropping to $50,964 in June 2012.
The statistic is nearly meaningless if you haven't lost your career.
People with personal experience of having lost a good job and having had to take such work as they can get typically see household income drop much more than a few to several percentage points. Try experiencing a 40+ percentage point cut. That's what's happened to many of the long-term unemployed, whose huge losses get averaged out, and lost, over all households in these studies.
