About 64% of Pennsylvanians who responded to a Quinnipiac poll in early January said their financial situation was very good or good. 24% rated it “not very good” and only 9% rated it not very good. But in the same survey, only 33% of Pennsylvanians said the “state of the nation’s economy” was excellent or good.
Complaints about more expensive gas and food, landlords raising rents, and insurance companies raising insurance premiums still spark small talk among friends. Home prices have soared, a blessing for homeowners but a curse for those looking to join the ranks. Child care and elder care costs, which had increased before the pandemic, are still increasing. (And beyond needs like car insurance, there's the annoyance of that $4 bag of chips in the checkout aisle or that ten pints of beer that used to cost $7.)
The most popular measure of national consumer sentiment, which the University of Michigan has tracked since 1978, reached its highest level since July 2021, before the worst of inflation. But the feelings never fully recovered. It remains stuck midway between the all-time low in June 2022, when inflation peaked at 9%, and the 21st century high around New Year's Eve 2019.
“Trying to make yourself happy is hard,” said Lindsay Danella, from Altoona, Pennsylvania.
The 39-year-old recently quit her $70,000-plus job as a general manager at a hotel. She said her executives responded to her staffing shortages during and after the pandemic by asking managers like her to do more of all her work without giving them more flexibility or pay.
Currently working as a server at Levity Brewing in downtown Altoona, she makes about $3, the legal minimum wage for tipped workers in the state, but despite her low base, she finds a way to “love” it. He says he found it. Business is good, so tips are generous on the weekends. And the taproom, which opened in 2022 in a remodeled space with floor-to-ceiling windows, is part of an area that has been revitalized since 2021.