Economists say the untold story of this recession is how it has devastated people in certain job and income categories, while leaving the affluent mostly alone.
Among the lowest-income — roughly the minimum-wage workers — unemployment nationwide is at true Depression-era levels of 20 to 30 percent, says a report last month by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.
However, it's only 3 to 4 percent for those making $100,000 or more.
The report, entitled "Labor Underutilization Problems of U.S. Workers Across Household Income Groups at the End of the Great Recession: A Truly Great Depression Among the Nation’s Low Income Workers Amidst Full Employment Among the Most Affluent" tells us what this recession has wrought — mainly an even greater widening of the gap between rich and poor than we had before — isn't getting more focus from the press and political leaders is a scandal, the Northeastern University economists suggest.
"Who will tell the people?" they write at the end of their paper. "Does anybody care?"
