Incomes up. Employment up. Health insurance coverage up.

By a host of key measures, New Jersey continued riding the national economic upturn in 2017. But even with those improvements, the reach of poverty remained wide, with about 1 in 10 New Jersey residents falling below the federal standard.

New census data released Thursday showed that the state reaped some of the country’s better gains from 2016 to 2017, following a period of turtle-like recovery from the prior decade’s Great Recession. New Jersey was among the last states to recover, with notable gains showing up in 2016.

"This really is an extraordinary economic period," said James W. Hughes, professor and dean emeritus of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. "If we make it to next July, it will be longest economic expansion in history."

In one of the most widely used barometers, median household income rose 3 percent in 2017 after accounting for inflation — the 10th-largest jump among the 50 states and better than that of neighboring New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania or Connecticut. New Jersey’s median income of $80,088 moved the state up from third to second place, behind only Maryland.

Household income includes money from wages and other sources, such as stock sales and dividends, which have helped drive the increases.

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Nationally, median household income ticked up 2.5 percent, led by a geographically disparate collection of states, including Montana, Maine, Washington, California and Tennessee.

Job growth has been strong, Hughes said. The service industry had big gains in New Jersey, with more jobs in health care and warehouse distribution. Data also showed that the state gained manufacturing jobs — “a real positive, because that sector has been hemorrhaging for 30 years,” Hughes said.

“Never before have we had more openings than we had unemployed people,” Hughes said. “Companies are having a hard time filling positions, and when that happens it pushes up wages.”

For sure, New Jersey still has significant economic hurdles to overcome.

One in 10 state residents lives in poverty, and the state remains one of the most expensive to live in, with homeownership costs that lead the nation. Moreover, the improvement in 2017 was not uniform. Overall wages failed to grow after accounting for inflation, while income growth was uneven and the chasm of income inequality between rich and poor barely changed.

Shivi Prasad, co-director and policy analyst at Legal Services of New Jersey’s Poverty Research Institute, said the numbers look good but don't capture the whole story. For instance, she said, poverty rates "don’t come close to reflecting the depth of poverty and deprivation in living.”

At 10 percent, the poverty level remains higher than at the onset of the Great Recession in 2008, Prasad said.

The Census Bureau uses the same threshold for poverty — $24,800 for a family of four — across states. “New Jersey has one of the highest costs of living in the country. It’s among the top three, so obviously the threshold does not even come close to reflecting true poverty in the state," she said.

The median income also does not reflect wide disparities in earnings and the fact that most new jobs have been low-wage positions, she said.

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The economic upturn reached nine years in June, Hughes said, adding that it's the second-longest expansion since the one the U.S. experienced between 1991 and 2001.

"It shows no sign of slowing down," Hughes said.

Despite continuing high poverty rates, major barometers in data released by the U.S. Census Bureau showed the state had a reasonably good year in 2016. The data come from the bureau’s annual American Community Survey, which collects information from about one in six households nationwide.

Examples of changes from 2016 to 2017 include these:

Household income

Median household income, after accounting for inflation, rose 3 percent, from $77,747 to $80,088.

Households headed by people of Asian descent improved most, with median income up 6.7 percent, and continued to be the wealthiest by a large margin, with a median income of $118,917.

White and black household incomes rose at about the same amount. The amount of money flowing through black households still lagged well behind, but nevertheless improved by 3.5 percent, to $50,395, while non-Hispanic white median household income rose 3.7, to $91,454.

The percentage of households in dire straits, with annual incomes of less than $25,000, dropped 5.5 percent — one of the biggest declines in the country. At the other end of the spectrum, the number of New Jersey households with incomes of at least $200,000 rose by 9.4 percent.

From county to county, the changes ranged far and wide. In North Jersey, the median income dropped by about 2 percent in Bergen County, after inflation, while rising 1 percent in Passaic County, 5 percent in Morris County and 9 percent in Essex County.

Poverty and inequality

While one in eight New Jersey households has an income exceeding $200,000, one in 10 state residents — and one in seven children — live in poverty. But the poverty rate, which had risen steadily until 2013, dropped for the second year in a row, going from 10.4 percent to 10 percent. Nationally, the rate was 13.4 percent.

The rate also dropped for children in New Jersey, from 14.6 percent to 13.9 percent.

In addition, the percentage of the state’s households receiving food stamps or some other form of public aid also declined, from 10 percent to 9.5 percent.

Earnings

While household incomes rose, wages stalled, going from about $41,800 to $41,600.

That may be a sign that the overall rise in household incomes — money that comes from wages as well as other sources — was driven significantly by soaring stock market gains that mainly benefit middle- and upper-income households.

In addition, more than half of the 83,000 jobs added to the state’s economy came in health, recreation and other industries with significant numbers of lower-paying service occupations.

Housing costs

Homeownership costs still consume more of New Jerseyans' income than in any other state: 22 percent. But that figure dropped from 23 percent and was lower than it has been at any point this decade, as mortgage interest rates remained historically low and home prices inched up at a minimal pace.

The percentage of mortgage holders who pay more than a third of their incomes on housing also dipped, from 28 percent to 26 percent.

For renters, not much changed. The median rent barely ticked upward, from about $1,240 to $1,280, but it remained fourth-highest in the nation. The percentage of tenants spending at least half their income for housing ticked down from 26 to 25 percent.

Health insurance

The percentage of New Jersey residents without health insurance dropped for the fourth year in a row, going from 8 percent to 7.7 percent. In 2013, it stood at 13.2 percent.



