The U.S. social polarization became more serious in 2016, with the proportion of adults who had full-time jobs hitting a new low since 1983, according to a report on U.S. human rights released Thursday.
The report, titled "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2016" and published by China's State Council Information Office, says income gaps continued to widen and the size of middle class reached a turning point and began to shrink in the United States.
It also notes that living conditions of the lower class was deteriorating.
The website of the Wall Street Journal reported that over the past 30 years, nearly 70 percent of incomes went to the 10 percent richest Americans, the report says.
The percentage of Americans who said they were in the middle or upper-middle class had fallen by 10 percentage points, from an average of 61 percent between 2000 and 2008 to 51 percent in 2016. That drop meant 25 million people in the United States fared much worse in economic terms, according to the report.
One in seven Americans, or at least 45 million people, lived in poverty.
Life expectancy in the United States in 2015 declined for the first time in more than two decades, the report says, noting that Americans' health conditions declined and social security system was seriously flawed in the country.
