After holding steady during the first year of the economic downturn, median household income in Lancaster County slipped 8.2 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to census data released late last month.

That decline, revealed in the American Community Survey, was large enough for the Census Bureau to flag it as statistically significant. Local experts blamed the recession and an overall trend toward decreasing wages, with one economist noting how the drop can been seen across most income levels.

"I am absolutely sure that the median income fell from 2009 to 2010 just as a result of so many people being out of work," Scott Sheely, executive director of the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board, said in an email.

But there's also the longer-term trend of median income and wages declining in Lancaster County "as the employment model that American businesses use shifts from one of hiring full-time people to one of hiring more contractors and contingent workers," he wrote.

"That shift is readily illustrated in Lancaster County, where staffing services are just as busy as their counterparts around the country."

That makes "upgrading the skills of our work force so that they can participate in the more high-skill, high-wage jobs that are emerging in business ... a high priority," Sheely concluded.

The recession "has affected different groups differently," said Antonio Callari, director of the Local Economy Center at Franklin & Marshall College.

He said average household income here in 2010 (which is a slightly different measurement than median income) declined across the board — except for the wealthiest fifth of the population.

Callari compared that to York County, where the poorest 20 percent of households experienced most of the slippage.

Some of the industries hit hardest nationwide in the past few years — including construction, transportation and warehousing — are central to Lancaster County's economy, which is "why the middle class and working poor are affected a lot," he said.

In Lancaster County, the bottom 20 percent of households saw their average incomes drop about 9 percent, while the next 20 percent experienced a decrease of around 9 1/2 percent, he said.

The incomes of households in the middle 20 percent fell about 7 percent, Callari said, and those in the second-highest quintile declined approximately 3 percent.

On the other hand, average household income for the richest fifth grew about 2 1/2 percent from 2009 to 2010, he said.

This closer look at income distribution, he said, is "what tells the story."

Contact Sunday News staff writer Paula Wolf at pwolf@lnpnews.com.