— While it's been a strong economic year in the Triangle, a new report shows that's not the case in many parts of North Carolina.

The report by the left-leaning Budget & Tax Center looked at Census Bureau data and found that median household income in North Carolina was $53,855 in 2018. Adjusted for inflation, that's about the same as in 2007, and it's actually lower than it was at the start of the century.

Those whose incomes are rising are mostly the top earners and mostly in the state's urban areas, such as the Triangle. But those gains have been offset by declining incomes for other workers, espcecially in rural areas, according to the report.

"Everyday people are struggling with lower wages and lower incomes than they had before the recession," said Alexandra Sirota, director of the Budget & Tax Center. "At the same time, costs are rising fast. Those cost increases in housing and child care are really putting a squeeze on families."

Mike Walden, an economics professor at North Carolina State University, said the recession hit North Carolina harder than many other states, and it has taken North Carolina longer to recover because two of the state's major sectors, manufacturing and banking, were among the hardest hit.

"Farming [also] has taken a big hit in the last couple of years," Walden said. "I think we’ve been more exposed to the trade wars, especially the trade war with China. So yes, North Carolina’s economy is still restructuring."

The Budget & Tax Center report shows about one in eight North Carolina families is living below the federal poverty line, which is about $25,000 for a family of four. The percentage of working families living just above the poverty line is also higher than it was before the recession.

Sirota has called for an increase in the minimum wage and tax credits for low-income families to boost household incomes.