Latest economics: Median income up; poverty rate down

Ahhh, that's good.

Median Household Income Rose 1.8% in 2017, Census Bureau Figures Show Poverty rate falls to lowest level since 2006; some economists are puzzled wages haven’t risen faster

The new data, which provide a broad look at U.S. economic well being, show that median household income increased to $61,372 last year, up 1.8% when adjusted for inflation. There were 39.7 million people in poverty last year, and that rate dropped 0.4 percentage point to its lowest level since 2006. The percentage of people without health insurance coverage for the entire 2017 calendar year was 8.8%, or 28.5 million, not statistically different from 2016.

The household income level is the highest on record, but a change in the way the figures are calculated over time makes comparisons imperfect, and census officials said the figure isn’t statistically different from previous income peaks in 1999 and 2007.