The Bottom 50 Percent By Wealth Are Disproportionately Younger Workers Starting Out, Seniors Who Used Up Their Wealth, The Unemployed And Nonwhite Or Hispanic Households

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From Finance and Economics Discussion Series, Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC, "The Other, Other Half: Changes in the Finances of the Least Wealthy 50 Percent, 2007-2009" by Arthur B. Kennickell, Assistant Director, Division of Research and Statistics, June 11, 2012:

This paper focuses on the wealth holdings of the least wealthy half of households***For example, although they [bottom 50 percent in wealth] hold little wealth on net, some of them do have sizeable assets which are largely offset by debts,***Although the group holds a disproportionate share of relatively young people who are early in the wealth accumulation phase of life and some older people who have decumulated wealth,***A number of striking patterns emerge in terms of the age distribution across and within the wealth groups. First, nearly half of the least wealthy 10 percent in 2007 were headed by a person aged less than 35 in 2007 and the next wealthiest group was almost as young***These results are consistent with the supposition that at least some of the observed distribution of wealth is driven by life-cycle events, which tend toward relatively less wealth and more borrowing at younger ages, and relatively greater wealth at older ages.***Unemployment appears to be a very important issue for the lower half of the wealth distribution, even aside from the overall economic disruption between 2007 and 2009. While less than 5 percent of household heads in the wealthiest half of households in 2007 reported that they had been unemployed and looking for work for a week or more in the preceding year, well over a quarter of the least wealthy 10 percent had such an employment spell; the rates were also relatively elevated for the other groups below the median.***In 2007, nonwhite or Hispanic households were much more heavily concentrated in the lower half of the wealth distribution than in the upper half. Almost 46 percent of the least wealthy 10 percent were in this group, as opposed to just under 19 percent of the wealthiest half.