New Study Pegs Financial Stress at All-Time High — Retirement Savings, Job Benefits and 3 More Contributing Factors
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Nicholas Morine
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News concerning the U.S. economy has mostly been favorable in recent months due to declining inflation, low unemployment and just enough GDP growth to keep economists from predicting a recession every five minutes. Even so, many American workers seem to be on the edge of panic — so much so that financial stress has reached record levels, according to a new study from Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.
Guardian’s “12th Annual Workplace Benefits Study,” released earlier this month, found that overall employee well-being has dropped to its lowest level in 12 years, with most Americans citing personal finance worries as the main contributor to their declining well-being. Meanwhile, financial stress is at an “all-time high.”
The study was based on a survey of more than 4,000 employees and workplace benefits decision-makers. Among the other highlights:
- Four-in-10 U.S. workers are living paycheck to paycheck.
- A third of respondents say they’ve experienced increased anxiety, depression, stress or other mental health challenges in the past two years.
- Fewer than four-in-10 (38%) believe their employer cares about their well-being (38%).
- More than half (55%) faced financial challenges over the past year, up from 37% as recently as 2021.
“Financial pressure doesn’t exist in a silo and isn’t something that individuals forget about at the end of the workday,” Guardian CEO Andrew McMahon stated in a press release. “When Americans are up at night worrying about finances, it is easy to see how these concerns directly contribute to declining mental and physical wellness… Our report validates our belief that a holistic approach to wellness — leveraging workplace benefits, individual solutions, and a variety of other resources — is the best way forward.”
What Are American Workers So Stressed About?
Employees are stressed about a variety of issues that occur both inside and outside the workplace. Here are five of the biggest contributing factors:
- Economic concerns.
- Inflation.
- Paying down debt.
- Insufficient retirement savings.
- Work benefits don’t adequately address mental health.
The Guardian Life study mirrors other recent research, including a survey conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of The Guardian news site (no affiliation with Guardian Life). According to the latter survey, there is a major disconnect between the realities of the economy and the way Americans perceive it.
As The Guardian news site noted, inflation is easing, unemployment is “close to a 50-year low” and the nation’s gross domestic product “has been steadily improving since the Covid downturn.”
Even so, the Harris Poll survey found the following:
- More than two-thirds of respondents (68%) said it’s “difficult to be happy” about positive economic news when they feel financially squeezed each month. The response was roughly equal between Republicans and Democrats.
- About two-thirds of Americans (65%) believe that the economy is worse than the media makes it out to be rather than better (35%).
- Even though unemployment rates have been close to a 50-year low, more than half of respondents (51%) “wrongly believe” that unemployment is nearing a 50-year high.
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