ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, these trends in the Northeast and California have reversed. Between 1989 and 1995, incomes and employment contracted and poverty grew the most in these states. By the end of the period, indicators in these geographic areas stood well below their 1989 peak levels. Wage growth at the median was flat or negative in most areas of the country over this period; even average earnings, which include all workers from the poorest to the most wealthy and which typically expand in a recovery, did not increase between 1989 and 1994.
