Better Off Now than Seven Year Ago? No.

Here are the facts:

• Between March 2001 and March 2008 the nation lost almost 3.3 million manufacturing jobs, and only gained 5.3 million jobs overall—just slightly more than half the number of jobs needed to keep pace with the 9.8 million people added to the labor force during that period. That's why the unemployment rate is 15.7 percent higher in March 2008 than it was in March 2001. (Bureau of Labor Statistics [2])
• The share of the population with jobs declined from 64.3 percent of the population in March 2001 to 62.6 percent of the population in March 2008. It's the first time on record that a period of "economic recovery" has been marched by an actual decline in the employment rate. (Bureau of Labor Statistics [2], Economic Policy Institute [3])
• Hourly wages rose 3.6 percent over the past year, the slowest growth rate in two years, and well behind recent inflationary readings, which have been around 4 percent. What's worse, employees on average have been keeping their workers on the job for fewer hours in the past year, so weekly earnings are up only 3.3 percent over the past year. (Economic Policy Institute [3]).
• Since the late 1990's, average incomes fell by 2.5 percent for those in the bottom fifth of the income scale and rose by just 1.3 percent for those in the middle fifth. Meanwhile, incomes climbed 9 percent for those in the top fifth, not counting income from capital gains. (Economic Policy Institute) [4]
• At the same time, the consumer price index from March 2001 to March 2008 has increased 17.5 percent. (Inflation Data.com) [5]
• People in the top 1 percent of the income bracket captured about half of the overall economic growth between 1993 and 2006. (Emmanuel Saez, University of California, Berkeley [6])