In a report released on August 28th, the IRS reported that individual income reported in 2012 jumped by 8.7% over the year before, and the number of tax returns reporting Unemployment Benefits dropped by an encouraging 22.9%, and cancellation of debt income, common in foreclosures or short sales, fell by nearly 10%.
Both of these statistics point to an economy that is slowly improving overall, since people are making more money, less of which is made up of unemployment benefits, which points to rising wages and decreased unemployment.