Below, EPI senior economist Elise Gould offers her initial insights on the Census Bureau’s latest data on earnings, incomes, poverty, and health insurance for 2021. Read the full Twitter thread here and follow along for more to come.

The federal government played a vital role in reducing poverty in 2021. While Social Security remains the largest poverty reducer in the U.S.—reducing the number who would have been in poverty in 2021 by 26.3 million—the relief measures in 2021 were vital. pic.twitter.com/zYDwW87lIT

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 13, 2022

Even with the rise in inflation, the bounce back in the labor market and strong safety net programs such as the child tax credit meant a reduction in poverty between 2020 and 2021. Remember SPM poverty includes those safety net programs while the Official Pov Measure does not. pic.twitter.com/4TA7YVekbs

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 13, 2022

Today, the Census Bureau also released valuable statistics on earnings for men and women in 2021. A bit surprising to me that there was little change in the overall number of workers, but a notable increase in full-time, year-round workers in 2021, for both men and women. pic.twitter.com/iep9KUELX7

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 13, 2022

Median earnings for all workers (regardless of work hours) rose between 2020 and 2021 by 4.6%, in part because of the shift from part-time to full-time work. The 4.5% rise in women’s earnings was particularly good news given that theirs is still significantly lower than men’s . pic.twitter.com/WIrGOBAmej

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) September 13, 2022