Nearly 90% Of Americans Fear Economic Collapse Because Of The Coronavirus
More Americans are concerned about a potential economic collapse than the risk of reopening communities too early amid the pandemic, though both scenarios are widely feared.
The latest iteration of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, released on Tuesday, shows that nearly 9 in 10 Americans are concerned about an economic collapse while three quarters fear their communities and states lifting lockdowns too early amid the pandemic. Axios and Ipsos have conducted the survey for seven straight weeks, though this is the first week that either of these measurements were taken.
Pollsters surveyed 1,021 random adults across the United States from April 24–27 to get the latest data. The results are ±3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Though more people overall are concerned about the state of the economy, Americans value health over the economy if asked to rank the two, Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs President Cliff Young told Axios.
“When you force one question over the other, health is still more important, over the economy,” Young said. “But that’s going to start changing.”
When asked about the economy, 87% of respondents said they were somewhat, very, or extremely concerned. 74% reported that they were somewhat, very, or extremely concerned about their community reopening too soon.
“As economic woes stick around and health challenges subside a bit, the economy’s going to become front and center,” Young continued. “There’s going to be increasing pressure to open up. But there is less tolerance for easing among Democrats.”
Democrats are generally more concerned about the coronavirus than Republicans and are twice as likely to know someone personally who has died with the disease.
The Department of Labor reported last week that 4.4 million more Americans have filed for unemployment, bringing the total number of filings since widespread shutdowns began to over 26 million. Factoring in the roughly seven million people who were receiving unemployment benefits before the pandemic, the measurable unemployment rate is about 20%.
Experts fear the real unemployment rate is much higher. Unemployment filings are only a fraction of the real number of Americans who have lost jobs in a given week, usually about 27.5%. The real unemployment rate may be anywhere from 20% to 45% of the U.S. workforce.
As The Daily Wire reported on Thursday:
“Over the past decade, unemployment claims have represented on average 27.5% of the real unemployment figure. If the statistic holds for the past five weeks of record unemployment claims, then more than 60 million workers are now unemployed, largely because of the coronavirus and state lockdowns. The unemployment rate would be over 30%, far higher than the quarter of Americans estimated to be jobless at the height of the Great Depression.”
Almost every state has issued stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The orders have prevented thousands of businesses from operating and severely restricted most others.
