About 47.5 percent of Americans live in a household that has lost income since February, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Another 37 percent expect to lose income in the next four weeks.
Households reliant on tourism or the energy industry for income were hardest hit.
In tourist-dependent Hawaii, for example, 60 percent of households have lost income. In New Jersey, known for its refining and petrochemical plants, the share is about 57 percent. Louisiana is a center of the U.S. oil and gas industry; Nevada depends on tourism. In each, about 56 percent of households have seen incomes shrink.
Among people who have lost incomes, 26 percent of renters and 15 percent of homeowners said they were unable to pay their April rent or mortgages or had made arrangements to defer them; 20 percent of renters and 10 percent of homeowners reported little confidence in being able to make their next payment or already had deferred them.
The survey was conducted from 7 May through 12 May by several federal statistics agencies collaborating to track changes in Americans’ well-being in education, employment, food security, health, housing, and income.
Out and Not Coming Back
Among the 36 million people who lost their jobs during the COVID Lockdown Panic, 42 percent may never return to those jobs, according to a University of Chicago study. Part of the permanent loss will come from the 100,000 restaurants closed by the shutdown that are expected never to reopen.
The pandemic-inspired global economic collapse has erased all the jobs added to the U.S. economy since the country began its recovery from the Great Recession more than a decade ago.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: There will be limited recovery among a few and accelerated economic decline for many.
As has become the American Way, while the lockdowns brought unprecedented hardship to the workers on the Plantation of Slavelandia, once again, the rich got richer.
While there are some 40 million Americans unemployed, the wealth of U.S. billionaires soared as the COVID-19 lockdown crisis worsened.
As reported last week by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness, since mid-March, America’s billionaires’ wealth spiked $434 billion.
