WASHINGTON D.C. -- The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds that in the first two weeks of November, the average number of "struggling" Americans hit 60%, higher than weekly averages seen throughout September and October. At the same time, the weekly average number of Americans who were "thriving" hit a new low of 36%.
When the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index first started asking Americans about their well-being in the beginning of 2008, the number of Americans who were considered to be thriving consistently came in at roughly 50%. However, Gallup reported that beginning in April the number of struggling Americans outnumbered those who are thriving, a trend that has continued since.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Bring Index asks at least 1,000 Americans each day to evaluate their current lives as well as their expectations of where they will be in five years using the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where "0" indicates the worst possible life and "10" the best possible life. Americans classified as "thriving" say that they presently stand on step 7 or higher of the ladder and expect to stand on step 8 or higher about five years from now. "Suffering" Americans are those who say they presently stand on steps 0 to 4 of the ladder and expect to stand on steps 0 to 4 five years from now. Americans that Gallup does not classify as thriving or suffering are considered to be "struggling."
Income
Americans making $24,000 or more per year showed an increase in struggling for several months, but struggling within these income groups reached new highs in early November. For the first time, a majority of Americans (57%) making $60,000 to $90,000 per year fell into the struggling category, and even those making $90,000 or more saw a significant increase in struggling. While the lowest-income Americans are still those most likely to be struggling, they did not see the stark increase in struggling in the first two weeks of November that those making over $24,000 did.
A similar contrast can also be seen in the last two weeks of September, when the fiscal crisis accelerated and the stock market took big hits. At that time, more Americans making $60,000 or more moved into the struggling category, the lower income groups stayed fairly level. One possible explanation is that higher income Americans are more likely to have savings in the stock market, which recorded sharp losses during that time.
The Job Market
Increased struggling among those with higher incomes, as well as the level seen among all Americans, coincides with increasingly negative news about the job market. Gallup's hiring measure tracks U.S. workers' perceptions of the job market and last week correctly projected higher than expected unemployment claims. Those working Americans who tell Gallup their employer is letting people go have, for the most part, also been significantly more likely to be "struggling." However, the overall increase in struggling Americans in early November is now almost equally distributed among those who say their employer is letting go and those who say their employer is hiring.
The increase in struggling Americans among those who say their employer is hiring might suggest that more Americans are aware of the deterioration in the job market even if their own employer is not letting go. It is interesting to note, however, the sudden decline in struggling among those who say their employer is letting people go in the Nov. 10-16 weekly aggregate when compared with prior aggregates for that group. Gallup Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and Well-Being, Dr. Jim Harter, says that one possible theory may be that "people who are employed in companies that are laying people off might appreciate that they still have a job."
Overall, these data suggest the economic crisis is taking a toll on the well-being of Americans on a much broader scale than even two months ago, and this deterioration of well-being is not necessarily insulated by a higher income or a relatively secure job.
About The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is the first and largest survey of its kind, with 1,000 calls a day, seven days a week. It is designed to be the Dow Jones of health, giving a daily measure of people's well-being at the close of every day based on the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health as not only the absence of infirmity and disease but also a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. The Well-Being Index will be a daily measure determining the correlation between the places where people work and the communities in which they live, and how that and other factors affect their well-being. Additionally, The Well-Being Index will increase the understanding of how those factors affect the financial health of corporations and communities. For additional information, go to www.well-beingindex.com.
Survey Methods
For the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008. For results based on these samples, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones (for respondents with a land line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell phone only).
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.Click below to get more stories, RSS feeds, and e-mail alerts on these topics:
