According to a Gallup poll published this week, half of Americans think they are in worse shape financially than they were a year ago, the highest percentage of reported decline since the financial crisis.
The results are especially bleak.
“Since Gallup first asked this question in 1976, it has been unusual for half or more Americans to indicate they are worse off. The only other time this happened was during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009,” according to Gallup News.
The results of the study, conducted between January 2nd and January 22nd, indicate that inflation has taken a significant toll on the financial circumstances of many Americans. In 2022, average hourly and weekly salaries fell for the second year in a row, as salary gains were drowned by increased costs. Higher interest rates and a drop in the stock market, according to Gallup, weighed on people’s perceptions of their financial status.
The results come as unemployment has reached its lowest level since 1969, and job vacancies have reached or exceeded historical highs.
Last year, Americans were split 41 percent to 41 percent on whether they were better off or worse off. They were also evenly divided the previous year.
Although President Joe Biden has stated that his policies are intended to “create an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down,” lower-income Americans are considerably more likely to say that their situation worsened during the Biden administration’s second year. According to the Gallup survey, almost 61 percent of households with incomes below $40,000 reported being worse off. Only 26 percent said they were better off.
This is a significant increase from last year, when only 41% of lower-income Americans thought they were worse off.
Almost half of middle-income households feel they are worse off than they were last year. 37 percent said their household’s financial status has improved.
Higher-income Americans are worse off, according to 43%, a 10% increase over the previous year’s survey. 39 percent believe they are better off.
Partisan politics may influence how people assess their own wealth. Sixty-one percent of Republicans believe they are worse off, compared to 37 percent of Democrats. 47 percent of Democrats believe they are better off.
Nonetheless, many Americans tend to feel the worst is over. According to the study, 60% believe they will be better off a year from now. Twenty-eight percent believe they will be worse off. According to Gallup, this optimism is shared across the income range. Even still, Americans expect economic circumstances to worsen, with inflation, unemployment, and interest rates rising while economic growth and stock values fall.
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