According to a Federal Reserve survey, 39 percent of households with annual incomes below $40,000 lost at least one job since the pandemic struck, while only 19 percent of households earning $40,000 to $100,000 did.
Among households with incomes of $100,000 or more, 11 percent lost one or more jobs.
While 5 percent of workers saw their pay increase in March, 23 percent said their incomes decreased.
Among workers with college degrees, 62 percent said they were able to work from home, but only 20 percent of those without a college certificate could do so.
Of those who had lost a job or lost some work hours, only 64 percent said they would be able to pay their month’s bills in full. Just 46 percent of those families said they would be able to cover a $400 emergency expense.
The survey also found that one in five Americans employed in February now are not, contradicting the official unemployment figure of 14.7 percent and pegging the number at 20 percent instead.
“This reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words,” said Fed chair Jerome Powell, adding that more federal aid to individuals would boost the economy and be worth the cost.
Homelessness May Jump 45 Percent
The economic lockdown and its consequences might turn 250,000 people out of their homes, according to a Columbia University study.
That would mean 818,000 homeless Americans this year, compared to the 568,000 estimated in January 2019.
Researchers based their estimate on a previous study that found in the Great Recession, every 1-percent rise in unemployment increased homelessness by 0.65 percent for every 10,000 people.
They then looked at unemployment projections. Using a modest-case scenario, they chose an unemployment rate of 16 percent into July. Applying the previous study’s homelessness rate, the researchers were able to predict that more than 800,000 people will be without homes by the end of this summer.
“Our best guess about what the future will be is what the past has been,” said economist Brendan O’Flaherty, the study’s author.
Preliminary figures show the lockdown’s impact has been most severe on households with incomes below $40,000, putting low-income persons at closest risk for losing their homes.
TREND FORECAST: Since the COVID War was launched by politicians in early March, we had warned that low wage workers would be hit the hardest, followed by middle class earners, which would in turn dramatically escalate the already growing homeless crisis.
Indeed, one of our Top 2020 Trends was “Homeless and Helpless.”
This trend is global and will dramatically worsen as economic conditions deteriorate during the “Greatest Depression.”
TRENDPOST: Being ignored by media and politicians is the fact that the homeless – those who are the most socially “non” distanced, not the healthiest, and among the poorest – have not become the primary victims of coronavirus. Indeed, in New York, the hardest hit COVID-19 state, only two percent of those admitted to hospitals were from the homeless population.
