Millions of Americans don’t have enough to eat, are behind on their housing, or have trouble paying their bills. And millions of Americans are falling into poverty.
Here’s how it gets harder for Americans.
More people in poverty
Nearly 8 million Americans have joined the poor since June, according to researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame.
The poverty rate rose to 11.7% in November from 9.3% in June. That’s nearly double the largest annual increase in poverty since the 1960s.
The increase is most noticeable among black Americans, whose poverty rate has risen 3.1 percentage points, and those with a high school education or less, who saw a peak of 5.1 percentage points.
The poverty rate is on the rise, although the unemployment rate has decreased by 40% over the same period. This split between the two is not surprising, given that some government benefits have expired, including a $ 600 federal boost in jobless payments, the researchers said.
To be hungry
According to the most recent Census Household Pulse Survey, running from Nov. 25 to Dec. 7, just under 27.4 million adults, or 12.7%, were in households where there was sometimes or often not enough food for the past seven days .
About a month earlier this was 25.8 million or 12%.
About 19.4% of Arkansas residents suffered from food shortages, but only 6.4% of Maine residents. The unemployment rates in those states were 6.2% and 5.0% respectively in November.
17.5% of households with children had sometimes or often not enough to eat in recent weeks, according to the Census data. That is comparable to 16.1% two weeks earlier.
Problems paying the bills
More than 85.4 million adults, or 35.6%, live in households where it was somewhat or very difficult to pay for usual household expenses during the pandemic, the Census survey found.
That’s up from 80.9 million, or 33.7%, about a month earlier.
Nevada, that tied to the country’s second highest unemployment rate at 10.1%, it had the highest percentage of people struggling to meet their expenses at nearly 45%.
In South Dakota, less than 25% of the residents were in that situation. The state has one of the lowest unemployment rates at 3.5%.
Rent or mortgage arrears
According to the Census data, nearly 13 million adults, or 9.1%, have no current rent or mortgage, or have little or no confidence that they will be able to pay next month’s housing bill on time.
That’s more than 11.1 million two weeks earlier, or 7.9%.
Louisiana, where the unemployment rate was 8.3% in November, had the highest percentage of people in this situation at 15.9%.
But only 2.3% of Montana residents could not afford their housing costs. The state unemployment rate was 4.9%.
The fear of wages is looming
Nearly 76.7 million adults, or 31%, expect someone in their household to have a loss of employment income in the next four weeks, the Census survey found.
About a month earlier that was 64.2 million, or just under 26%.
Nevada again took the top spot with 45.1%, while South Dakota did the best with 20.5%.
This story has been updated with details on the stimulus deal reached Sunday.