2016 has been one of the strongest years for the U.S. economically since the mid-2000s, witnessing both a drop in unemployment as well as a rise in wages and consumer confidence, reports The Atlantic. Economy grew a steady 2 per cent. Unemployment was low (4,6 percent, 2 million new jobs added). Wages were increasing. The markets hit new highs. Consumer confidence rose. Yet Donald Trump won the presidential election promoting economic pessimism,as if the country was falling apart, and promising to Make America Great Again. Why?

The answer, according to The Atlantic, is that the strength of the post-recession recovery has varied dramatically depending on social groups and regions. 

The recovery has been characterized by yawning gaps between the rich, the middle, and the poor. It has also been characterized by yawning gaps between cities, the suburbs, and rural parts of the country. “Once you go beneath those big, national, largely encouraging statistics, you see a lot of variation,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. 

Race and ethnicity play into the geography of the recovery too: Black and Hispanic families are more likely to live in urban areas than white families, and their representation in the workforce has grown through the recovery. More than half of the job gains since late 2007 have gone to Hispanics, who make up 14 percent of the labor force, according to an analysis from the Economic Cycle Research Institute.

As reported in The Atlantic.