Beginning the week of Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year, the U.S. Census Bureau contacts thousands of Americans for a 20-minute interview regarding how they are doing financially. What the investigators discover is a snapshot of how the nation and individual states are faring.
Analyzing the data from Oct. 1 to Dec. 1 indicates the same picture seen before, but in a different frame: People are struggling to get by, but the struggles are not only caused by housing bills and food prices.
Electricity bills have placed a burden on Americans’ shoulders, including for 25% of Utahns who say they struggle to pay their electric bill in full each month, the census report notes.
“We’ve all talked about this before, but inflation is playing a huge role in the financial lives of everyone. And prices are not going down,” said Matt Schulz, a chief credit analyst for Lending Tree, a personal loan company. “Pre-pandemic, there was already a tight margin for error with people’s budgets, so when prices increased after the pandemic, people were forced to make tough decisions. One of them had to do with monthly bills, like electricity.”