{"id":29295,"date":"2020-06-25T11:32:17","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T16:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=29295"},"modified":"2020-06-25T11:50:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T16:50:04","slug":"how-are-wisconsin-voters-experiencing-the-pandemic-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2020\/06\/how-are-wisconsin-voters-experiencing-the-pandemic-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"How are Wisconsin voters experiencing the pandemic economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin\u2019s unemployment rate hit\u00a014 percent in April<\/a>\u00a0and remained at\u00a012 percent in May<\/a>. Combining surveys from late March, early May, and mid June, the Marquette Law Poll found that 13 percent of Wisconsin registered voters had lost a job or been laid-off due to the coronavirus outbreak. A further 23 percent said this had happened to a family member. Likewise, 23 percent reported working fewer hours due to the coronavirus outbreak, and another 29 percent said this had happened to a family member. Altogether, 27 percent of those interviewed had either lost a job, lost hours, or both at some point during the economic shutdown.<\/p>\n

Taken by themselves, these numbers suggest an economic catastrophe on par with the Great Depression, but that has not happened\u2013at least not yet\u2013in the experiences of most Wisconsinites. In nearly every poll, we ask respondents to evaluate their family\u2019s financial situation\u2013are they \u201cliving comfortably, just getting by, or struggling to make ends meet?\u201d The trend is remarkably flat. In January 2020 63 percent said they were living comfortably\u2013statistically indistinguishable from the 61 percent saying the same thing in June. So what gives?<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/a><\/p>\n

Our poll alone cannot answer this question definitely, but it can offer some clues. Just as\u00a0COVID-19 has hurt some communities in Wisconsin more than others<\/a>, so too has the accompanying economic crisis. Along with disproportionate cases and deaths, Black and Latinx Wisconsin residents faced a stark economic toll. The number of Black respondents \u201cstruggling to make ends meet\u201d increased from 10 percent in January\/February to 22 percent during the pandemic. The proportion of Latinx respondents \u201cliving comfortably\u201d declined from 66 percent to 47 percent over the same period.<\/p>\n

In early 2020, prior to the economic shutdown, 63 percent of respondents described their family as \u201cliving comfortably.\u201d People who lost their job during the pandemic did indeed report declining financial comfort. Just 37 percent of those who lost a job were \u201cliving comfortably.\u201d Even worse off were those whose families lost multiple jobs. Only one in three people in this position were \u201cliving comfortably;\u201d 57 percent were \u201cjust getting by,\u201d and 11 percent were \u201cstruggling to make ends meet.\u201d But people who suffered no financial ill effects actually\u00a0improved<\/em>\u00a0their self-assessed financial well-being during the pandemic. Among people whose families lost no jobs or hours, 70 percent were \u201cliving comfortably,\u201d 25 percent \u201cjust getting by,\u201d and only 4 percent struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

The table below compares experiences by income level in 2019. To maximize cases, I pooled together all respondents who reported a job loss among any member of their family.<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, 37 percent of people with household incomes below $40,000 said they were living comfortably. People in this income bracket whose family lost at least one job during the shutdown now report a 24 percent rate of \u201cliving comfortably\u201d\u2013a 13 percent decline. Forty-seven percent of people from families who avoided income losses now say they are \u201cliving comfortably\u201d\u2013a 10 percent increase. The same pattern repeats itself in each other income tier.<\/p>\n

\"percent<\/a><\/p>\n

What accounts for the increase in \u201cliving comfortably\u201d among those who\u2019ve kept their jobs? I see three possible explanations, all of which probably contribute in some way.<\/p>\n

First, job losses in the pandemic have been concentrated among lower-wage workers. It could be that those who lost their jobs were already more likely to be financially struggling. Second, people whose families have kept their jobs may feel themselves lucky and are thus more likely to positively evaluate their subjective financial well-being. Third, people who have maintained an uninterrupted income stream may actually be making and\/or saving more money than before. Whatever the cause, the pandemic appears to be sharpening the division between haves and have-nots in Wisconsin\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin\u2019s unemployment rate hit\u00a014 percent in April\u00a0and remained at\u00a012 percent in May. Combining surveys from late March, early May, and mid June, the Marquette Law Poll found that 13 percent of Wisconsin registered voters had lost a job or been laid-off due to the coronavirus outbreak. A further 23 percent said this had happened to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[349,162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lubar-center","category-marquette-law-school-poll","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29295"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29300,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29295\/revisions\/29300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}