A year after the new coronavirus arrived in the United States, many Americans are struggling with their finances, according to a comprehensive report released Friday by the Pew Research Center.
About half of non-retired adults say the pandemic has made it difficult for them to achieve their financial goals. This increases to 58% for people on lower incomes.
One goal is retirement itself: about a quarter of people over the age of 50 said they delayed retirement because of the outbreak or hoped to delay it.
About four in ten Americans say they have received pay or have been fired or have lived with someone who does. For Hispanic and Asian households, the majority have suffered these income losses: 61% of Hispanic households and 58% of Asian households say they have suffered a pay cut or layoff.
Job loss was also skewed by revenue. Half of low-income workers lost jobs or pay, while a third of higher-income workers reported the same, Pew found.
Pew’s data reflects the forked economy, much of which was virtualized last year as travel ceased and entertainment and food outlets closed, eliminating millions of fewer jobs. remunerated. At the same time, large parts of professional workers in fields such as technology, law or finance were able to do their work remotely. (An analysis has shown that higher-paid workers are six times more likely to work remotely than their higher-paid colleagues).
This uneven reality is also reflected in spending data. While low-income Americans were more likely to see incomes fall, they were less likely to cut spending, Pew found.
“Adults with higher incomes are also more likely than those with medium or low incomes to say they have spent less and saved more money since the coronavirus outbreak began,” the report found. More than eight out of ten high-income adults report spending less during the pandemic, while only a third of low-income adults say the same.
And there is a clear division of classes in the reasons for reducing spending. Nearly 9 in ten of high-income workers and two-thirds of middle-income workers spend less “because their daily activities have changed because of coronavirus-related restrictions,” Pew found. Falling daily commutes, canceled travel plans, and closed restaurants, which occupy the highest-paying jobs, also translate into less spending for middle- and upper-income Americans.
Among lower-income adults, most “spend less because they care about personal finances,” Pew found.
The pandemic and its aftermath have also had a mental weight. Three out of 10 adults told Pew that they often worry about debt, as black and Latino workers are more likely to report frequent concerns than white respondents. Just under one in five Americans worry about paying rent or mortgage on time or buying enough food for their family.
At the other end of the ledger, three out of ten respondents (and four out of ten high-income people) told Pew that they were financially better than a year ago.
In general, according to Pew, the financial anguish of Americans is now less acute than in April, when the economy was in free fall. Just over half of Americans said their personal financial situation was good or excellent, up six percentage points from April. But for those who suffer, it has been lasting. Among workers who lost wages personally during the pandemic, half still continue to earn less money than before the outbreak began, Pew found.