For more than three decades, the Stanleys and Neumanns — two families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — have been among the Americans navigating a turbulent and rapidly changing U.S. economy. FRONTLINE’s latest documentary, Two American Families: 1991-2024, chronicles the lives of both families as they navigate job loss, housing foreclosures and medical expenses and struggle to make ends meet with part-time and low-wage work.

“We can point to a lot of indicators of how great the economy is,” said Keith Stanley, whose family has appeared in the documentary since the early ‘90s. “Our productivity over the past 40, 50 years in this country has skyrocketed. But there’s a sacrifice to that: the sacrifice of not being home to see your kids go to school. The sacrifice of always putting work before everything else. I still believe in hard work. But I will say that I think we are fooling ourselves if we believe that it’s only hard work.”

Here’s a by-the-numbers look at broad economic trends and forces that have impacted the lives of working families like the Stanleys and Neumanns in recent decades.

4% decrease

The middle class in the U.S. has been shrinking over the course of five decades. In 1990 — around when FRONTLINE started filming Two American Families — 55% of the population in the United States was considered middle class. In 2023, that dropped to 51%, according to the Pew Research Center.

A household of three with an annual income in the range of $61,000 to $183,000 in 2022 was considered part of the middle class, per Pew. Households with an income below $61,000 fell into the lower income category, and a household income above $183,000 was considered upper income.

What has happened over the last 30 years is that a growing share of the population has moved out of the middle class and either toward upper or lower incomes, said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. “What this reflects is labor market trends, where labor economists have noted the hollowing out of middle earning jobs, the middle of the labor market. And instead, there’s been what’s called polarization. There are more workers in low-wage, service jobs. And there’s a growing number of particularly college-educated professionals who are in higher-earning jobs and there are fewer middle- earning jobs.”

$426,525

In 1990, the average cost of a home was around $122,300 ($280,381, adjusted for inflation) based on data aggregated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In 2023, it was approximately $426,525.

Buying a home is increasingly difficult for many Americans, according to a 2024 report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies, which notes that more than a decade of under-building, coupled with current interest rates and increased demand for housing among younger generations “has left homebuyers with few affordable options as home prices continue to rise.”

(Figures adjusted for inflation to December 2023 using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Inflation Calculator.)

91% increase

In 1990, the average cost of attending a 4-year public university including tuition, fees, room and board was $5,243 per academic year ($11,732, adjusted for inflation), according to the National Center of Education Statistics. By 2022, the average cost was $22,389 — an increase of 91%. Some factors for this upward trend include rising inflation and reductions in state funding.

(Figures adjusted for inflation to 2022-23 dollars.)

39% increase

The average person went from spending around $528 ($1,024, adjusting for inflation) out-of-pocket on health care in 1990 to around $1,425 in 2022, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, which represents a 39% increase. These figures include what individuals paid for services, goods, copays or deductibles, but not for health insurance premiums. They also include spending by uninsured people who may have paid full price for health care.

In 2022, more than a quarter of adults in the country (28%) said they skipped some kind of medical treatment because they were unable to pay for it, according to a 2023 report by the Federal Reserve.

(Figures adjusted for inflation to 2022 dollars.)

19%

The percentage of older Americans — age 65 and above — who are working has been increasing since the early 1990s, according to the Pew Research Center. In 1987, around 11% of older adults were employed. In 2023, approximately 19% were working.

Some of this increase is due to an ongoing demographic shift. By 2030, all baby boomers will be over the age of 65, according to a 2020 Census report. The report notes that by 2034, “older adults will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.”

Several other factors that have contributed to the rise in the percentage of older workers, according to Pew. Compared to previous decades, the current population of older adults have higher levels of education, improved health and hold retirement plans that aren’t designed for workers to retire by a certain age.

Many Americans also say they need to keep working later in life to make ends meet.

A 2023 poll by the National Institute on Retirement Security found that 55% of working age Americans expressed concerns about financial security when they reach retirement and 66% were worried about the increase in health care costs they might face in retirement.

6% decrease

Since the end of the 1950s, union membership in the U.S. has been on the decline. In 1990, the union membership rate of American workers was 16%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2023, the rate was 10%.

Union jobs offer “substantial benefits” to middle class workers, according to a 2023 report by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which says that unions increase wages of their members by 10-15% and improve employment benefits such as retirement plans and working hours.

The report states that the impact of unions has a spillover effect to workers who aren’t in unions: “Other workers see increases in wages and improved work practices as their non unionized workplaces compete with unionized ones for labor.”

Max Maldonado, Tow Journalism Fellow, FRONTLINE/Newmark Journalism School Fellowships, FRONTLINE

Email:

max_maldonado@wgbh.org