Table 1.
Changes in income distribution. (a) By pre-job loss earnings. (b) By occupation.
| (a) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate |
Median change in income |
||||
| Earnings quintile | Weekly earnings | 2019 | 2020 | Without FPUC | With FPUC |
| Bottom quintile (<$490) | $372 | 2.6% | 19.9% | −9.3% | 19.5% |
| Second quintile ($491–$760) | $592 | 1.5% | 12.8% | −6.1% | 5.0% |
| Third quintile ($761–$1060) | $886 | 1.5% | 8.0% | −3.4% | 1.1% |
| Fourth quintile ($1061–$1630) | $1,280 | 0.9% | 6.2% | −3.5% | −1.0% |
| Top quintile ($1631+) | $2,323 | 0.8% | 3.8% | −2.5% | −1.6% |
| (b) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate |
Median change in income |
||||
| Occupation | Weekly earnings | 2019 | 2020 | Without FPUC | With FPUC |
| Food service | $491 | 6.0% | 36.8% | −18.5% | 18.9% |
| Janitors | $591 | 4.3% | 15.2% | −5.9% | 6.6% |
| Medical assistants | $591 | 3.2% | 12.7% | −5.2% | 5.2% |
| Receptionist | $591 | 7.4% | 19.4% | −6.1% | 9.8% |
| Sales & retail | $689 | 4.2% | 17.9% | −7.7% | 4.7% |
| Transport | $827 | 2.5% | 17.0% | −8.5% | 1.0% |
| Construction | $853 | 5.3% | 16.3% | −6.0% | 3.2% |
| Teachers | $984 | 1.3% | 10.2% | −5.6% | −0.8% |
| Nurses & therapists | $1,280 | 1.6% | 3.4% | −1.1% | 0.2% |
| Managers | $1,477 | 1.4% | 5.0% | −2.6% | −1.0% |
| IT | $1,713 | 1.2% | 3.1% | −1.3% | −0.5% |
This table shows how the US income distribution changed from the increase in unemployment from May 2019 to May 2020 and the $600 supplement to unemployment benefits known as Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC). Weekly earnings is the median of weekly earnings for employed workers in that earnings quintile or occupation in the 2019 ASEC. The earnings for employed worker i are the same in 2019 and 2020: wi, 2020 = wi, 2019. Expected income for worker i in quintile or occupation j is Ei, t = wi, t × (1 − uj(i),t) + uj(i),t × benefiti, t. uj(i),t is the unemployment rate in group j in period t and benefiti, t is an estimate of the benefit that worker i is eligible for times an estimate of the recipiency rate of unemployment benefits for unemployed workers in period t. The final two columns then compute for each quintile or occupation: Medianj(Ei, 2020/Ei, 2019) with and without the $600 FPUC. In panel (a), quintiles are defined without conditioning on unemployment and so capture the earnings distribution of all workers. The unemployment rate in panel (a) differs from Fig. 2 panel (b) because that panel captures April through July 2020, while this table examines only May 2020.