MNI POLICY: 23% of US Households Expect Income Loss in Next 4W

Nearly a quarter of U.S. households especially those with low and middle income levels anticipate losing employment income in the next four weeks, according to data published Wednesday by the Census Bureau.

Roughly 23.4% of households surveyed between Sept. 30 and Oct. 12 indicated they expected to lose employment income in the next month, according to the Census Bureau's biweekly Household Pulse Survey, essentially unchanged from the previous survey week's 23.7%.

About 15% of those households reported an annual income of less than USD25,000. Another 9% earned between USD25,000 and USD50,000 and 14% earned between USD50,000 and USD75,000 per year.

Households making less than USD25,000 a year account for about 11% of households who experienced a loss of employment income since March 13, according to the Census data. Middle-income homes earning up to USD75,000 account for 14%.

BENEFITS AND CREDIT

Just under 30 million households reported using unemployment insurance benefit payments in the last seven days to meet spending needs, according to the survey, down very slightly from 31 million between Sept. 16 and Sept. 28.

Just over 10 million unemployed Americans filed a continuing claim for unemployment insurance benefits through Oct. 3, the most recent week available, according to the Department of Labor, down from 11.2 million a week earlier. Roughly 25 million unemployed workers were receiving some kind of UI benefit through Sept. 26.

Another 51 million households reported using funds saved from their one-time USD1,200 stimulus payment from the government to meet spending needs over the past week, according to the Census data, down from 54 million in the previous survey week.

A growing number of Americans said they were relying on credit cards or loans to meet spending needs, with 60 million reporting using mostly credit through Oct. 12, up from 58 million through Sept. 28.

Another 11 million said they were using money saved from deferred or forgiven payments.