A survey conducted by the Federal Reserve on consumers revealed that 4 out of 10 American households are still struggling financially, even after five years has passed since the Great Recession.
In the survey that was conducted in September of last year, many households have been found to be in a struggle with credit issues, school debt and retirement fund problems.
A recovering economy has allowed a majority of American households to bounce back, and now "living comfortably." However, almost 40 percent of U.S. families said that they were "just getting by," with more families reporting that they are currently in a worse situation as opposed to a better one compared to five years ago.
The findings of the Federal Reserve coincide with other studies regarding the effects of the recession from 2007 to 2009. The recovery of the economy has been mostly slow, with an uneven angle that is favoring only those that are wealthy to begin with.
"It just shows that the recovery is not delivering for a huge chunk of Americans," said Economic Policy Institute economist Heidi Shierholz.
Monitoring the recovery of the United States economy and defining the risks to the stability of nationwide finances is the goal of the Federal Reserve survey, which provided for another look at the damaging effects of the Great Recession on families and individuals.
Another finding of the survey reveals that 15 percent of the labor force that retired in 2008 did not yet plan to do so, but was forced to by the recession. The figure translates to about 2 million Americans.
"This suggests that some of the folks who dropped out of the labor force during the recession will not be returning," said Moody's Analytics economist Scott Hoyt.
Of the American homeowners that have owned their properties for at least five years, 45 percent said that the value of their homes are lower compared to 2008, with only 27 percent saying that the value of their homes increased.
More Americans have chosen to rent homes instead of owning them after the recession. The trend is not by choice, but rather because families could not afford the required down payment or do not have the requirements to file a mortgage.
One-third of all consumers were either turned down in their loan applications or given less credit than they wanted. One-fourth of household, on the other hand, had school debt of an average of $27,840. One-fifth of these borrowers are either behind in their payments or are facing collection agencies.
The survey also revealed that one out of every five Americans that are near retirement age have no money saved for their retirement fund, with most respondents saying that they simply have few or no financial capability to invest into a retirement fund.
