Even though the economy generally is strong, as the White House proclaims, new data illustrates why President Bush’s polls are low: Wages haven’t been rising and workers are losing health coverage.

White House aides assert that worker compensation has begun to rise as the economy continues to grow, but they acknowledge the word is not getting out in time to help Republicans in the November elections.

The latest Gallup Poll shows that Bush’s overall approval rating is 42 percent, but on the economy, it’s only 39 percent.

Gallup also found that Americans favor Democrats to handle the economy by a margin of 52 percent to 38 percent.

Conventional political wisdom is that attitudes on the economy suffer under a dark shadow cast by the Iraq war, but some top administration aides acknowledge that economic concerns may have their own bite.

This week’s report from the Census Bureau shows that the nation’s median household income rose slightly in 2005 – but only because more family members were taking jobs to make ends meet.

And a front-page New York Times analysis of economic data showed that both median hourly wages and total worker compensation – wages plus benefits – fell between 2003 and 2005, despite surging productivity and corporate profits.

Meanwhile, the bureau’s report showed another jump in the number of Americans lacking health insurance – up 1.3 million in one year to 46.6 million, or 15.9 percent of the population.

Of the 1.3 million, fully 961,000 were employed all year – evidence that employers are continuing a trend of dropping coverage.

When they do, workers’ children also lose coverage – and the bureau showed that the percentage of children lacking insurance rose from 10.8 percent to 11.2 percent.

And the report showed that economic recovery has not diminished the nation’s poverty rate, which held steady at 12.6 percent.

The data suggests that, while the overall economy has recovered strongly during the Bush administration, the benefits have not accrued to average workers – a trend that definitely helps Democrats in the fall elections.

When the Commerce Department issued its latest figures on economic growth on Thursday – 2.9 percent for the second quarter – the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Rob Portman, issued a statement saying it showed that “the economy is on sound footing.

“Today’s report shows the economy has grown 3.6 percent in the past four quarters, well above the 40-year historical average of 3.2 percent,” Portman stated.

He also touted the fact that growth is generating more government revenue than expected, lowering estimates of the federal deficit.

In an interview, Edward Lazear, chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, said new data shows that total compensation – wages plus benefits – has risen 6 percent this year.