Rising inequality—or the widening of wage levels—is a defining feature throughout much of the last few decades. The middle wage—the 50th percentile or median wage—is displayed alongside higher-end wages (the 90th percentile) and lower-end wages (the 10th percentile), shown here in real—or inflation-adjusted dollars—for better comparison over time.

The prime-age employment-to-population ratio—or the share of the population between 25 to 54 years old with a job—is a key economic indicator because it directly measures employment outcomes and centers the population less likely to be in school or retired. The prime-age employment-to-population ratio is higher for men than women, but both indicators rise in economic recoveries and fall in recessions.

In the 1970s policymakers dismantled the policy bulwarks helping to ensure that typical workers’ wages grew with productivity. The productivity and pay indexes show the inflation-adjusted growth of economy-wide labor productivity and the average compensation of nonsupervisory and production workers.

This figure illustrates the unemployment rate in every state and the District of Columbia since the 1970s, calling out those with the highest and lowest unemployment rate in the latest available data. While the unemployment rate varies by state, the general cyclical pattern of rising unemployment in recessions and falling unemployment in business cycle recoveries or expansions is common across all states.