“Household incomes rose last year for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began, reflecting the effects of easing inflation and a strong job market.

The new data from the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday signaled an improvement in 2023 after inflation that spiked to a 40-year-high the prior year swallowed up household income gains.

Inflation-adjusted median household income was $80,610 in 2023, up 4% from the 2022 estimate of $77,540, the bureau said in its annual report card on households’ financial well-being. This move returned incomes to about where they were in 2019, the peak that was hit just before the pandemic.”

From Wall Street Journal.