It's full employment, stupid: even a slight rise in unemployment clobbers the bottom half.

NEWLY RELEASED DATA ON INCOME AND POVERTY suggest that the recent economic downturn hit lower-income families disproportionately. The latest Census Bureau report found that poverty began rising and median family income started falling in 200l, confirming what many of us have always known: The key to improved living standards for the bottom half was, and is, full employment.

After tumbling through the latter half of the 1990s, the unemployment rate hit a 30-year low of 4 percent in 2000. With the onset of recession, it reversed course and climbed to 4.8 percent in 200l.

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