By Isaac CohenThe Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, last week, revealed the results of a survey of households on financial well-being. Over 11,000 respondents were surveyed between October and November 2021, before the arrival of the Omicron variant to the United States. After the survey, inflation reached 8.3 percent and unemployment decreased to 3.6 percent.
Starting with financial well-being, 78 percent of adults said there were “doing okay” or “living comfortably,” the highest figure from 63 percent registered since the first survey of 2013. However, this depends on the education level of the respondent: 91 percent said they were at least okay financially among those who have a college degree, while only 49 percent said so among those with less than a high school degree. The 78 percent who have a positive perception of their financial well-being contrasted with only 24 percent who said the national economy was good or excellent. Also, the number of respondents that were behind on rent payment increased from 12 percent in 2019 to 23 percent in 2021, among those earning less than $50,000 a year. These percentages of those who are behind in rent also increased among Hispanics, from 12 percent in 2019 to 22 percent in 2021, and among Blacks, from 14 percent in 2019 to 21 percent in 2021.
