Why the economic recovery doesn’t feel like one
By most measures, the American economy is improving. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1 percent while initial jobless claims have fallen. Growth in home prices has accelerated. But wages seem to be stuck, and the economic recovery doesn’t feel like one to many Americans, according to the results of the first Marketplace-Edison Research Poll about how people feel about their personal financial situations.
The takeaway: People are anxious.
More than three in five of those surveyed said they were anxious some of the time or frequently. What’s more, an even greater percentage said they lacked financial security.
So with those findings in mind, it’s no wonder people feel stuck – only a slim majority in the survey said they had the opportunity to advance financially.
It’s so bad, more than a quarter of people reported losing sleep because of their finances.
You can dig deeper into the full poll results here.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.