While the least financially secure Americans are more likely to back Democrats, that support is undercut by low political participation. Those who are financially insecure are far more likely to opt out of the political system altogether.
Pew Research's annual Global Attitudes surveys starts by asking respondents how they would describe their day. A median of nearly two-thirds (65%) across 44 countries surveyed in spring 2014 responded that they were having a typical day.
The gap between America’s upper-income and middle-income families has reached its highest level on record. In 2013, the median wealth of the nation’s upper-income families ($639,400) was nearly seven times the median wealth of middle-income families ($96,500).
The median wealth of white households was 13 times the wealth of black households and 10 times that of Hispanic households in 2013, compared with eight and nine times, respectively, in 2010.
Retail is one of the more seasonally variable sectors of the U.S. economy, but much of the holiday hiring surge is concentrated in just a handful of categories.
The world’s third largest economy faces long-term challenges, including pessimistic forecasts from the Japanese public, the hollowing out of Japan’s working-age population and the nation's exorbitant public debt.