The Human Toll

Unemployment peaked at 10% nationally, and far higher in the worst-hit states. Retirement savings were gutted as stock markets lost half their value. Between 2007 and 2010, the median American household lost 39% of its net worth — years of saving erased in a single downturn.

The recovery was painfully slow and deeply unequal. Wall Street pay rebounded fast — even as cash bonuses stayed about a third below their 2007 peak, firms shifted toward higher base salaries and deferred pay — while most workers waited five years or more to recover lost income. People who entered the job market during the crash earned less for years afterward than those who graduated in better times.