New Jersey households are continuing to bring in less money than they did five years ago. According to American Community Survey estimates being released by the U.S. Census Bureau today, the 2010 median household income in New Jersey was $67,681. That’s a 2.7 percent drop from the median income of $69,569 the year before, and 2.9 percent less than the inflation-adjusted total of $69,674 in 2006.

Broken down by county, Morris and Camden counties took the biggest one-year hit, with each showing more than a 7 percent decrease in median household income from 2009 to 2010.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Bernard McCann, of Chatham. “In fact, in this county (Morris), I would have guessed it was more of a decrease. You see it on the trains going into the city. Wall Street’s hurting. The financial world is hurting. The housing market is hurting.”

James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said the weak numbers are typical of economies trying to rebound from deep financial crises.

Despite the National Bureau of Economic Research’s declaration that the recession in the U.S. ended in June 2009, Hughes said “there’s no economic silver bullet that’s going to accelerate this to any great extent.” More in Star Ledger.