It’s been a year since the coronavirus crisis brought the economy to its knees, and some people may never recover financially.
Despite recent signs of improvement – including modest job gains and advances in vaccination shots with Covid-19, paving the way for a more open economy – about half of working adults in the US said the impact of the pandemic will make it harder for them. Making long term financial goals, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.
Of those who said their financial situation has gotten worse, 44% said it will take three years or more to get back to where they were 12 months ago – and 1 in 10 said their finances will never be quite the same.
More from Personal Finance:
Americans increased their credit card debt because of Covid
A financial snapshot of America a year after Covid
Tax the rich policy can make sense in a K-shaped economy
“There are certain groups who have not only lost jobs in their households, but are also in debt – those are things that affect their future,” said Juliana Horowitz, one of the report’s authors.
Inequality has been a hallmark of the pandemic recovery, characterized by job losses for those at the bottom and rising prosperity for those at the top.
This so-called K-shaped recovery has almost split the nation in two, with the richest Americans faring even better than before, while millions of others faced setbacks.
Low-income adults, as well as black and Hispanic Americans and people under 30, were the most likely to say they or someone in their household lost a job or got a pay cut since the coronavirus outbreak started, Pew found.
As a result, they have had to delay paying certain bills and incur debt in the face of pressing financial concerns, including food insecurity.
Meanwhile, higher-income adults were more likely to say their family’s financial situation had improved over the past year, largely due to spending less and saving more money.
“Higher-income adults are also more likely to have jobs that can be done from home, so they haven’t lost jobs to the same degree,” Horowitz said.
About 4 in 10 wealthy Americans said their family’s financial situation has changed for the better, compared with 32% of middle-income and only 22% of lower-income adults, Pew found.
An overwhelming majority of higher-income adults – about 86% – said their finances are in good or even excellent shape. The same is true for about 6 in 10 adults with a college education of at least four years old, white and Asian Americans, men, and people 65 and older.
Alternatively, about three-quarters of low-income adults, blacks and Hispanics, and those without a college degree said their personal finances are in fair or bad shape.
The Pew Research Center surveyed more than 10,300 American adults in January.
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.