Many Americans believe recession is permanent – ‘We may be seeing the beginning of a new generation in American society: no longer millennials, but ‘recessionals’’
By Chad Brooks, BusinessNewsDaily Contributor
8 February 2013 (LiveScience.com) – Despite signs of an economic recovery, the Great Recession’s scope and impact was so widespread and corrosive that it has left millions of Americans permanently damaged financially, a new study finds. The research from the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University found that five years after the country’s economic downturn started, 60 percent of U.S. residents think the nation’s economy has undergone a permanent change. More than half of those surveyed think it will take at least six years for the economy to fully recover from the Great Recession, with 29 percent believing it will never hit the levels it reached before the recession. “After suffering through the worst economic disaster American workers have ever experienced, they are deeply pessimistic,” said Rutgers professor Carl Van Horn. “Five years of economic misery have profoundly diminished Americans’ confidence in the economy and their outlook for the next generation.” Among those who did find themselves out of work, more than half cut back on medical treatments or doctor visits, while 40 percent were forced to borrow money from family or friends, the research found. In addition, more than 20 percent have been treated professionally for stress or depression. Overall, more than half of those surveyed said they have less money in savings today than before the recession began, including 38 percent who say they have a lot less in savings. One of the study’s co-authors, professor Cliff Zukin, said it is younger Americans, having come out of high school and college into an overcrowded job market, who may be affected the greatest. “There is some evidence we may be seeing the beginning of a new generation in American society — no longer millennials, but ‘recessionals,'” Zukin said. “Whereas older workers hit by the recession might recover their past consumer habits, this period of the recession might leave a lasting imprint on young people in their buying habits and need for security as they make their way through life.” [more]
