National Poverty Center director Sheldon Danziger told CNBC that "the Great Recession was not an equal disemployer."
The CNBC.com article cited a poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center that found a majority of Americans are concerned about the country's widening income disparity, which Danziger partially attributes to the Great Recession.
According to the authors:
"'The Great Recession was not an equal opportunity disemployer,' said Sheldon Danziger, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan who describes the gap between rich and poor as the widest in decades. 'College graduates, whites, and middle-aged workers had fewer and shorter layoffs than high school graduates, blacks, Hispanics, and younger workers. And, only a small percentage of the rich work in the hardest-hit industries, like construction and manufacturing.'"
Americans have expressed their concern in ways that could have significant implications for the 2012 presidential election. For instance, the poll found that 58 percent of Americans believe the wealthy do not pay enough in taxes.