surveys

Economix Blog: So Much for the Growing Class War

January 11, 2013 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Despite all the talk of the lazy 47 percenters, the scruffy 99 percent versus the entitled top 1 percent, contentious proposals to raise taxes on the rich, and the uncapped political donations of billionaires, the “class war” apparently abated last year, if you believe the American public.

Based on two surveys by the Pew Research Center. The latest survey is a telephone poll conducted Nov. 28 to Dec. 5, 2012, with a nationally representative sample of 2,511 adults ages 18 and older. Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 percentage points. The previous survey was conducted Dec. 6-19, 2011, with a nationally representative sample of 2,048 adults ages 18 and older. Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Asked by Pew Research Center about conflicts between rich and poor, Americans were less likely to say there were “strong” or “very strong” conflicts at the end of 2012 than they were a year earlier. In 2012, 58 percent of Americans believed there were significant conflicts between rich and poor, compared with 66 percent in 2011. The biggest conflict Americans perceived was along partisan lines, not economic ones.

Here are the numbers from previous years Pew asked about conflicts between rich and poor, showing that Americans perceive about as much class warfare today as they did in 1987:

Source: Pew Research Center. Latest numbers are from a survey conducted Nov. 28 to Dec. 5, 2012, with a nationally representative sample of 2,511 adults ages 18 and older and a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

There was no statistically significant change in perceived conflicts between the young and the old (29 percent in 2012 versus 34 percent in 2011). Perceived conflicts between these two age groups is actually relatively low compared to some of previous years for which Pew has data:

From an economic standpoint, it’s actually a bit surprising that Americans don’t see greater tensions between the generations. Medicare and other public spending on the elderly (such as public pensions at the state level) has been gobbling up an increasing share of government budgets, which crowds out spending on the young and raises their future tax burdens.

Article source: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/so-much-for-the-growing-class-war/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Economy News Tagged With: partisan lines, pew research center, surveys

Bucks Blog: Rising Out-of-Pocket Health Costs

November 17, 2012 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

I looked over some medical statements recently and realized that even though my family had spent roughly $3,000 out of pocket for health care this year, we would still fail to meet our annual deductible.

We’re not alone. Workers who get health insurance through their employers have seen the average deductible nearly double over the last six years, a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds.

In 2012, 72 percent of covered workers face a general annual deductible, up from 52 percent of workers in 2006, according to a deeper look at data from the Kaiser/HRET Employer Health Benefits Survey. Among workers who have an annual deductible, the average deductible for single coverage, across all types of plans, is $1,097 this year, up from $584 in 2006.

Those working at smaller companies — those with fewer than 200 workers — were more likely to have higher deductibles, the analysis found.

Now, I’m not necessarily complaining — even though the $3,000 that was spent on health care is $3,000 that won’t go into our retirement account, or into our children’s college funds. We knowingly opted for a higher deductible to keep our monthly premiums lower. And we had savings to cover the costs that the our insurance plan didn’t.

But what about families who are living paycheck to paycheck, and don’t have backup savings?

Previous surveys have found that some families forgo needed care because of the higher costs.

“While many working families have sufficient savings and coverage in case of a medical emergency,” the analysis concluded, “the growth in workers’ contributions and cost sharing may increasingly become a financial strain on some households.”

Have you noticed that you’re paying more for health care? How are you managing higher deductibles?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/rising-out-of-pocket-health-costs/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: health benefits, surveys, working families

Economix: By One Survey, Fewer Jobs Than 2 Years Ago

August 5, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

The job numbers every month come from two different surveys, which sometimes point in different directions. The establishment survey questions employers, and produces one headline number. This month it concluded that, seasonally adjusted, the economy added 117,000 jobs in July. The household survey asks people if they are working, and is used to calculate the unemployment rate.

FLOYD NORRIS

Notions on high and low finance.

The two surveys do not cover the same thing: Self-employed people are not counted in the establishment survey. But someone with two jobs may be counted twice. Add in issues of sampling error, and they can diverge for long periods of time.

But it is interesting to observe that the total number of people with jobs in the household survey in July was 139,296,000. That figure is half a percent less than the figure in June 2009, when the recession officially ended. The unemployment rate is lower only because there are fewer people in the work force.

The establishment survey looks a little better. It shows employment up half a percent since the end of the recession.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, via Haver Analytics

Both surveys indicate employment hit bottom in the winter of 2009-10, and is now higher. But while the establishment survey indicates the rise has been slow but steady since then, the household survey showed a sharp rise in early 2010 but has done little since then.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b867c7b36894bea7bfb073c48f0ce34e

Filed Under: Economy News Tagged With: finance, surveys, unemployment rate

Bucks: Following the Rich

June 25, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

In his Wealth Matters column this week, Paul Sullivan considers the various surveys and analyses done of and for the rich. He says all the time and money put to looking at the wealthy, particularly when most people are feeling anything but wealthy, raises questions about the value of the information. Could anything from the various reports help others?

The reports he cites look at issues as diverse as the number of wealthy people, the changes in their investments in the last year and their concerns about the global and domestic economies.

Have you found that knowing how the rich act has affected your behavior, whether you’re following their lead or taking the opposite path?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a2aca0ffe372c4b4d7a45c25848eca19

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: investments, paul sullivan, surveys

Economix: Correcting the Picture on Jobs

May 6, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

11:29 a.m. | Updated This is one of those months when it’s impossible to tell a consistent story about the jobs report.

Job growth was unexpectedly strong last month. The unemployment rate rose to 9 percent, from 8.8 percent, its biggest one-month increase in more than a year-and-a-half.

Which of the two numbers should you believe? The short answer is the job-growth number. The labor market appears to be improving. The rise in the unemployment rate is mostly a reflection that the rate fell by an artificially large amount over the previous several months.

It doesn’t actually mean unemployment rose last month. Instead, it reflects a kind of statistical catch-up. The old picture of the job market, as presented by the household survey, had been too optimistic. (Did anyone really believe that the job market recently improved at its most rapid two-month pace since the 1950s, as the unemployment rate suggested?) Today’s report helps correct the picture. This is simply the nature of surveys: they have noise in them.

With all this being said, the rise in the jobless rate is not irrelevant. Before today, you could have argued that the employer survey was vastly underestimating the pace of job creation — in other words, the job market was healthier than the employer survey suggested even if it wasn’t quite as healthy as the household survey suggested. After today, it’s much harder to make that case.

The job market continues to improve, which is certainly welcome news. But the pace of improvement remains modest. Unfortunately, that’s the typical pattern in the wake of a financial crisis.

Update: Some readers have asked whether the unemployment rate can rise even as employment is growing because more people start looking for work — and thus count as officially unemployed. Theoretically, the answer is yes. This does happen sometimes. But it didn’t happen in April. The unemployment rate rose last month because the household survey showed a decline of 190,000 jobs, not because of a surge in job seekers. That’s why there is no way to reconcile last month’s results of the household survey and employer survey. They make sense only in the context of previous months.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=adf14f006bfd286a9af4d8086a142dc8

Filed Under: Economy News Tagged With: household survey, short answer, surveys