Labor economist Bill Rodgers said that for most Americans, “this is probably the toughest one year that many have had in their whole lifetime.”
According to U.S. Census data, rates of anxiety and depression have skyrocketed. Prior to the pandemic, only 6% to 7% of the population self-identified as anxious or depressed, according to Rodgers. In the midst of the pandemic, those numbers jumped to 25% to 30%.
“Good news is… some of those rates have fallen” since the $1.9 million in stimulus money has been distributed, said Rodgers, adding that messages that help and support are on the way have also helped. More than a year into the pandemic, “we are starting to see some improvement,” he said.
But the rate of Americans saying they are anxious or depressed is “still in excess of 20%. And I have some colleagues who think since these are self-reported, these actually could be even lower. So this is not about lazy Americans or Americans being blasé,” he said.
While mental health issues can happen to anyone, disadvantaged communities are particularly stressed because of pay and wealth gaps.
“Those who face pay differentials, pay disadvantages, such as women earning, continuing to earn 20%, 25% less than men, or Blacks, Latinos earn substantially less than their white counterparts, that creates economic stress. That creates challenges. How am I going to meet my monthly expenses? How am I going to meet my child care bills?” Rodgers explained. Those financial pressures create “anxieties” and “stress.”
Rodgers said companies can address employee stress. While there is no “silver bullet” solution, there are a few steps that can be made like increasing wages.
“I think that will also address some of the concerns that people don’t want to go back [to work], that they’re wanting to use their unemployment insurance checks, they prefer using those to meet their bills. But if there really is truly a worker shortage, let’s see people increase wages,”including the federal minimum wage, he said.
“Human resource people and the talent management people are going to also have to do some… reboarding,” said Rodgers. “Many people have been out of work or been out of the office for months and months, and even in those short periods of time, people’s soft skills will have deteriorated or sort of fallen off. And so there will have to be a greater amount of compassion and understanding with regards to bringing people back and showing sensitivity.”
Kristin Myers is a reporter and anchor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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