Dramatic macroeconomic events have marked the first 21 years of the twenty-first century. The Great Recession (2007–2009), the largest and longest downturn since the Great Depression, was followed by the longest recovery in U.S. history. Of course, the Long Recovery then ended with a pandemic bang in March 2020. Though the Long Recovery was lengthy, it was also uneven. The Great Recession affected households in different socioeconomic circumstances quite differently. And so, the story of the Long Recovery from the Great Recession is not simple to tell.
The May 2021 volume of The ANNALS, “What Has Happened to the American Working Class since the Great Recession,” tells the story from the perspectives of economics, demography, sociology, and policy. Special editors Timothy M. Smeeding, Jennifer Romich, and Michael R. Strain bring together scholars from these disciplines to address, for example, what more than a decade of economic expansion following the Great Recession did for the working class and various groups of disadvantaged workers.
The articles in this volume give both hope and concern, as they provide a solid starting point for assessing the future of the working class.
