Here's one problem the Department of Homeland Security won't be tackling anytime soon: income insecurity. There's more of it these days, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.

Family incomes have become increasingly volatile -- rising, falling -- over the last three decades, it concludes. Major factors: less health care coverage, fewer pension plans with a guaranteed benefit, higher household debt, fewer public benefits for workers.

Among the findings:

-- Working-age folks who have seen a 50 percent or greater drop in their household income rose from less than 4 percent in the early 1970s to almost 10 percent in the early 2000s.

-- Women's income, usually blamed for sharp upturns or downturns, actually has stabilized in recent years, while men's income has become more volatile.

-- In the last 15 years, income instability has risen faster for college graduates than it has for people with only a high-school education.

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