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Census: Florida's Middle Class Feels the Squeeze

September 14, 2011 | WMFE - Florida's rich are getting richer according to a new batch of Census data released this week and the middle class is disappearing. Experts believe it highlights a trend that will probably continue without a significant re-tooling of the American economic and education systems.


The data come from a broad report on income and poverty in the United States and it traces a pattern of declining household income and advancing poverty rates all over the country.

Tony Carvajal is director of state policy at the Collins Center for Public Policy, a Florida-centered think tank. He's waiting to see the city-by-city data which is due out next week, but he doesn't have a good feeling.
“This has just been a shocking report, unfortunately confirming what we expected.” Carvajal said. “We have widening gap between the rich and the poor and the decline of the middle class.”

Nationally, the report found household income is down 2.3% from the previous year and the poverty rate is up for a third straight year, this time to 15.1%. Florida's poverty rate is almost an entire percentage point above that and at a 16-year high. Carvajal says the shrinking of the American middle class began before the recession and is likely to outlast it.

“How long it lasts will depend on social changes, how we retool our education system and our communities.” Carvajal said. “If we don't change that path, then this trend is likely to be long term.”

The poverty information was based on a survey of 100,000 households. The next release of data will come from 3 million households and will include poverty and income rates for large cities such as Miami, Tampa and Orlando.

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