A just-released report finds Americans far more pessimistic about the economy than they were right after the Great Recession.
According to the survey conducted by Rutgers University, 71 percent of Americans say, the recession left them with a permanent change in what are normal economic conditions and that the economic downtown created irreversible shifts in the economy. That’s up from 49% in November 2009, 56% percent in September 2010 and 60% in January 2013, who said the same thing.
“The vast majority of Americans see the recession as having wrought fundamental and lasting changes across a wide number of areas of economic and social life, including the affordability of college (historically important for upward mobility in American society), the age at when people are able to retire, workers’ job security and retirees having to work part-time,” the researchers wrote.
Other key findings of the study:
- One-third of Americans (35) say the Great Recession permanently changed their life
- 42% of Americans say they have less, including 25 percent who say they have a lot less now
- One in six Americans have been devastated by the Great Recession, reporting a major and permanent change in their life style
- Just 16% of Americans now say that job, career and employment opportunities will be better for the next generation
- Only 20% of currently employed workers feel extremely or very confident they could find another job if they were laid off
- Just one in three thinks the American worker is better than workers in other countries.
See the full report HERE.
