Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The recent recession divided Americans into two camps with a slight majority of people saying they suffered economic setbacks and slightly less than half of those surveyed saying they held their own through the financial crisis, according to a Pew Research Center report.
Pew researchers on Friday released results of a recent survey in a report titled “One Recession, Two Americas.”
Researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,967 adults ages 18 and older.
“For a narrow majority of Americans (55%), the Great Recession brought a mix of hardships, usually in combination: a spell of unemployment, missed mortgage or rent payments, shrinking paychecks and shattered household budgets, according to a new analysis of survey data by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project. But for the other 45% of the country, the recession was largely free of such difficulties,” researchers wrote.
The survey was conducted from May 11 to 31.
In the full report, researchers said they found great discrepancies between how the two groups of Americans were faring in the wake of the recession.
“Among those who disproportionately experienced economic hardships during the recession, more than half (54%) say they are just getting by or fall short of meeting their monthly expenses and more than 4 in 10 say the recession forced them to make ‘major’ changes in the way they live,” researchers wrote.
“In contrast, 8 in 10 of those who held their own during the recession say that they’re ‘living comfortably’ or that they have money left over each month after paying their bills. And unlike their less fortunate counterparts, not a single one says that the recession has forced major lifestyle changes.
It’s not surprising that some people were harder hit by the recession than others, or that people who, for example, suffered a spell of unemployment also had trouble making their rent or mortgage payments. What is striking , however, is the fact that the groups are roughly the same size yet the differences between them are so great,” researchers concluded.
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