Chicago poll finds many residents struggling to get by financially

Welcome back. A new survey, I should say, finds nearly half of Chicagoans are struggling to get ahead financially with 43 percent saying they're just getting by and another 13 percent saying they're finding it hard to even get by. And you can understand right where they stand there. The Chicago Speaks poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago also finds nearly three Three in 10 residents are unable to pay some or all of their bills in full. Joining us now is Vince Welch, associate director at NORC at the University of Chicago. Good morning. Vince, hey, some dire, dire study results here. What was your takeaway? I would say that my biggest takeaway is, like you guys mentioned here in the start, is that there are many... Many Chicagoans who are making it, but most have almost no room for error. You know, You know, like you said, almost three out of 10 can't pay all their bills every month. And over half are either finding it difficult to get by or just getting by. And only about one out of 20 Chicagoans say that they're striving, say that they're thriving. So, Like you said, these are some pretty bracing findings. Yeah, I want you to talk about who was surveyed. Are we talking about a huge chunk of the city? What were the numbers in terms of who was surveyed? So the survey was completed on just over 1,000, almost 1,100 Chicagoans from all across the city. One of the things that we are really proud of with Chicago Speaks is that we do make sure that we have representation. From every segment of the city so that is representation by race and ethnicity by age by income education and especially making sure that we have representation and survey responses from folks who are often left out of research like this so the lesser educated the less financially well off. Right. race and ethnic minorities, young people, et cetera. Vince, how are these survey results going to be used? Are there any partner organizations that you guys are working with that now maybe have a better idea of where need is the greatest? We do. So we actually have partnerships with a number of nonprofits and service providers like the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Yeah. That will help that these data will help to understand where need is and and to get a better feeling for how Chicagoans are getting by. I think it's also in some ways maybe a testament to how Chicagoans feel as well, because in one case, I know among employed residents, 19 percent thought it is very or fairly likely they will lose their job or be laid off in the next 12 months, which tells me they feel uncertain. What do you make of that particular statistic? So that statistic has been relatively stable over the course of the past several rounds of the survey. And so I think, you know, what that suggests about where people are is that is right in line with what we're seeing when we ask the thriving question is that people are operating with almost no room for error. There's quite a lot of... Anxiety about how things are going to be and how much And how much people are able to do to not just get by and not just pay their bills, but to actually start to move ahead in life. Yeah, and it certainly doesn't square with what we often hear that the economy is on its way up and that jobs are plentiful and more jobs are being added. I mean, wow. So and to that point, what Vince, what can policymakers and local leaders on this election day take away from these findings? I think the biggest takeaway is that These economic issues are front of mind for Chicagoans now the survey in the survey we did not ask about what policies Chicagoans would support and also I'd be really careful in. And kind of inferring vote, vote choice from these data, because, you know, we don't know that. But I think what this does say is that economic issues are front of mind, and they really and, and folks in Chicago and folks all across the country really do want to feel a greater sense of comfort, and a greater sense of getting ahead. Thank you very much. Regardless of anything else. Yeah, which that's what we're all about, right? The American dream, we hear it all the time. It sounds like some people feel like they're left out of that dream based on the numbers of events. Thank you so much for spending some time with us here on Good Day Chicago this morning. Thank you so much. All right, thank you.