The Shrinking Middle

Pew Research Center published a report titled The Lost Decade of the Middle Class and the subtitle sums it up:  fewer, poorer, gloomier.

It seems part of gloom would be the fact that more and more workers are "contingent".  An estimated 30 percent of the workforce doesn't have permanent jobs.  That generally means lower pay and less security.

Update (December 3, 2013):  Harold Meyerson recounts how the middle-class have been in a 40 year slump.

Update (January 5, 2014):  David Wessel was surprised by the fact that most of the growth in the past 25 years went to the top and didn't trickle down to the middle class.

Update (April 27, 2014):  Lynn Stuart Parramore reports that the average after-tax income of the Canadian middle class has now surpassed that of the United States.  Poorer income groups in most European countries to better than those in the U.S.  The analysis is based on data from the Cross National Data Center in Luxembourg and conducted by The Upshot at The New York Times.

Update (June 1, 2014):  Edward McClelland describes Canada as a land of averaging out, while the United States is a land of extremes.