Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, I conduct an inductive exploration of the change in immiseration for working persons in the United States, 2003 to 2025. Four measures are tracked: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit usage, Medicare usage, workplace pension non-participation, and underemployment. Trends for each measure are decomposed along five occupation-based class groupings. Data patterns reveal intensified immiseration over the period for all groups, which is confirmed by logit regression analyses. Lower-class occupations fared worse overall; however, there is a trend toward class convergence on food insecurity and workplace pension non-participation. Potential causes and implications for policy and electoral politics are discussed.
AcemogluDaron.2002. “Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market.” Journal of Economic Literature40 (1): 7–72. https://doi.org/10.1257/0022051026976.
2.
AlbertChristoph.2021. “The Labor Market Impact of Immigration: Job Creation Versus Job Competition.” American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics13 (1): 35–78. https://doi.org/10.1257/mac.20190042.
3.
AntonisseLarisaGarfieldRachelRudowitzRobinArtigaSamantha. (2017). “The Effects of Medicaid Expansion under the ACA: Updated Findings from a Literature Review.” Issue brief: Kaiser Family Foundation.
4.
AutorDavid H.2011. “The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the Labor Market: Implications for Employment and Earnings.” Community Investments23 (2): 11–41.
5.
AutorDavid H.2014. “Skills, Education, and the Rise of Earnings Inequality among the “other 99 Percent”.” Science344 (6186): 843–51. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1251868.
6.
AutorDavid H.KatzLawrence F.KearneyMelissa S.. 2008. “Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Revising the Revisionists.” Review of Economics and Statistics90 (2): 300–23. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.90.2.300.
7.
BickAlexanderBlandinAdamMertensKarel. (2020). “Work from Home After the COVID-19 Outbreak.” Working Paper 2017, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. https://doi.org/10.24149/wp2017r1.
8.
BravermanHarry. (1998 [1974]). Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.
9.
CardDavid.2001. “Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration.” Journal of Labor Economics19 (1): 22–64. https://doi.org/10.1086/209979.
10.
CascioWayne F.MontealegreRamiro. 2016. “How Technology Is Changing Work and Organizations.” Annual Review Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior3: 349–75. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062352.
11.
DubeArindrajit.2019. “Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics11 (4): 268–304. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20170085.
12.
DuncanOtis D. (1961). A Socioeconomic Index for All Occupations. In Occupations and Social Status, edited by Albert J. Reiss, Paul K. Hatt and Cecil C. North, 109–139,Glenco, IL: Free Press.
13.
ElsbyMichael W.HobijnBartSahinAysegul. 2010. “The Labor Market in the Great Recession.” NBER Working Paper 15979. https://doi.org/10.3386/w15979.
14.
FeenstraRobert C.HansonGordon H.. 1999. “The Impact of Outsourcing and High-Technology Capital on Wages: Estimates for the United States, 1979-1990.” Quarterly Journal of Economics114 (3): 907–40. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556179.
FreanMollyGruberJonathanSommersBenjamin D.. 2017. “Premium Subsidies, the ACA, and Medicaid Expansion: Coverage Effects of the Affordable Care Act.” Journal of Health Economics53 (1): 72–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.02.004.
17.
GhilarducciTeresa. (2015). When I'm 64: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
18.
GoldenLonnieKimJaeseung. 2020. The Involuntary Part-Time Work and Underemployment Problem in the U.S. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).
19.
HauserRobert M.WarrenJohn R.. 1997. “Socioeconomic Indexes for Occupations: A Review, Update, and Critique.” Sociological Methodology27: 177–298. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9531.271028.
20.
HopkinsDaniel J.LelkesYphtachWolkenSamuel. 2025. “The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage.” American Journal of Political Science69 (2): 483–500. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12875.
21.
HoynesHilarySchanzenbachDiane W.. 2016. “U.S. Food and Nutrition Programs.” NBER Working Paper 22530. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22530.
22.
JebbAndrew T.ParringtonScottWooSang E.. 2017. “Exploratory Data Analysis as a Foundation of Inductive Research.” Human Resource Management Review27 (2): 265–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.08.003.
23.
KallebergArne L.2009. “Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition.” American Sociological Review74 (1): 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400101.
24.
KallebergArne L.DunnMichael. 2016. “Good Jobs, Bad Jobs in the Gig Economy.” Perspectives on Work.20: 10–75.
25.
Katz LawrenceF.KruegerAlan B.. (2016). “The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015.” NBER working paper No. 603; Princeton University Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, Princeton NJ. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22667.
MeyerBruce D.MittagNikolas. 2019. “Using Linked Survey and Administrative Data to Better Measure Income: Implications for Poverty, Program Effectiveness, and Holes in the Safety Net.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics11 (2): 176–204. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20170478.
28.
MishelLawrenceSabadishNatalie. (2012). “CEO Pay and the Top 1%: How Executive Compensation and Financial Sector Pay Have Fueled Income Inequality.” Washington, DC, Economic Policy Institute, Issue Brief No. 331.
29.
MunnellAlicia H.FraenkelRebecca C.HurwitzJosh. (2012). The Pension Coverage Problem in the Private Sector.Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Issue Brief 12-16.
30.
MunnellAlicia H.SundénAnnika. 2004. Coming up Short: The Challenge of 401(k) Plans. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
31.
NakaoKeikoTreasJudith. 1994. “Updating Occupational Prestige and Socioeconomic Scores: How the New Measures Measure Up.” Sociological Methodology24: 1–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/270978.
32.
SidesJohnTeslerMichaelVavreckLynn. 2022. Identity Crisis: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691228914.
33.
SiegelPaul M.1971. Prestige in the American Occupational Structure. Ph.D. dissertation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
34.
SommersBenjamin D.BlendonRobert J.OravE. JohnEpsteinArnold M.. 2016. “Changes in Utilization and Health Among Low-Income Adults After Medicaid Expansion or Expanded Private Insurance.” JAMA Internal Medicine176 (10): 1501–9. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0293.
35.
SommersBenjamin D.MayloneBethanyBlendonRobert J.OravE. JohnEpsteinArnold M.. 2017. “Three-Year Impacts of the Affordable Care Act: Improved Medical Care and Health Among Low-Income Adults.” Health Affairs36 (6): 1119–28. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4419
U.S. GAO. 2020. Federal Social Safety Net Programs: Millions of Full-Time Workers Rely on Federal Health Care and Food Assistance Programs.Washington, DC: United States Government Accountability Office (GAO-21-45), October.
39.
WesternBruceRosenfeldJake. 2011. “Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality.” American Sociological Review76 (4): 513–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122411414817.
40.
WiatrowskiWilliam J.2011. “Changing Landscape of Employment-based Retirement Benefits.” Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September.
41.
WuDongyuanHuangJason L.. 2024. “Gig Work and Gig Workers: An Integrative Review and Agenda for Future Research.” Journal of Organizational Behavior45 (2): 183–208. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2775.
42.
ZewdeNaomiRemlerDahliaHysonRosemaryKorenmanSanders. 2021. “Improving Estimates of Medicaid's Effect on Poverty: Measures and Counterfactuals.” Health Services Research56 (6): 1190–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13699.
43.
ZuboffShoshana.1988. In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power. New York: Basic Books.
