Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. poverty rate rose to the highest level in 11 years in 2008 and household incomes declined as the first full year of the recession took its toll, government data showed.

The poverty rate climbed to 13.2 percent from 12.5 percent, and the number of people classified as poor jumped by 2.6 million to 39.8 million, according to a Census Bureau report released today. The median household income fell 3.6 percent to $50,303, snapping three years of increases.

Today’s report highlights concerns that consumer spending will play a limited role in leading any recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s. Plunging home values and stock prices have fueled a record $13.9 trillion loss in household wealth in the U.S. since the middle of 2007.

“The decline in incomes we’re seeing certainly has implications for consumer spending, particularly post-housing bubble when families can’t tap into home equity through loans,” said Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress, a research organization headed by John Podesta, a leader of the Obama administration transition team.

The poverty rate is likely to keep rising through 2012, even after the recession ends, adding to pressure on the Obama administration to enact a second economic stimulus package, said Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, a policy research group.

“We will likely have not only a jobless recovery but also a poverty-ridden recovery,” Sawhill said. “The stimulus money is going to go away long before the poverty rate peaks.”

Unemployment Jumps

She noted that the unemployment rate in 2008, the year covered by the census study, averaged just 5.8 percent, compared with 8.9 percent so far this year. The rate last month jumped to 9.7 percent, the highest in 26 years.

Sawhill is among analysts forecasting a further drop in incomes this year, reflecting the worst job losses of any recession since World War II. Since the slump began in December 2007, the U.S. has lost 6.9 million jobs. Payroll cuts peaked at 741,000 in January and have since subsided, with 216,000 job losses in August, according to the Labor Department.

The rise in poverty is putting a strain on social services and charities.

At the Atlanta Community Food Bank, demand in August was up by about 20 percent from a year earlier, said Bill Bolling, the founder and executive director.

“There are a lot of people who have never needed help that need it now,” he said. “It is quite a different environment.”

Three of four U.S. regions saw declines in real median household income in 2008 from the previous year -- the South, Midwest and West. Income in the Northeast was statistically unchanged, the census report showed.

Per Capita Income

Real per capita income for the U.S. as a whole declined by 3.1 percent last year to $26,964, the report showed.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast unemployment to reach 10 percent early next year, even as they predict the worst recession in seven decades will come to an end in the second half of 2009.

President Barack Obama in February signed into law a $787 billion stimulus package aimed at stabilizing the economy and creating or saving about 3.5 million jobs. So far, the bill has created or saved as many as 1.1 million jobs, the White House said today.

The number of people without health insurance coverage rose to 46.3 million last year from 45.7 million in 2007, the census report also said. The uninsured still accounted for 15.4 percent of the population, the same as in 2007, according to the Census figures.

Health-Care Plans

In order to cut health-care costs and make health care accessible to all Americans, Obama and Democratic lawmakers have proposed taxing private insurers, trimming spending in the federal Medicare program for the elderly and disabled and creating a more affordable public plan to expand coverage.

The poverty threshold in 2008 was defined as $22,025 in income for a family of four.

The poverty rate typically rises during a recession and continues to climb even as the recovery begins, Census Bureau figures show.

During the economic expansion of the 1990s, the poverty rate declined each year from 15.1 percent in 1993 to 11.3 percent in 2000. It then climbed to 11.7 percent in 2001, as the nation slid into recession, and continued its ascent to 12.7 percent in 2004.

To contact the reporters on this story: Timothy R. Homan in Washington at thoman1@bloomberg.net; Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 10, 2009 15:52 EDT