“You just have to scrape together and gut it,” he said. “We’re really struggling to get by.”
But in other areas of me. Arnone, home reviewer, said her friends and colleagues are reaping the rewards from the booming housing market, where sales rose 23.7 percent in January from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Ultralow mortgage rates have led to a wave of refinancing, which requires new assessments.
“I do not have much to complain about,” said Traci Warner, a friend of mine. Arnone and a home judge in Waldorf, MD, south of Washington. After her husband was fired from his sales job in April, the job of Ms. Warner received the blows.
It’s not that things are perfect, but unlike mr. Gallagher, she does not feel that she is barely hanging.
This contrast is reflected in the larger economy. Weekly unemployment claims by newly fired workers remain at historically elevated levels, even as the stock index reaches records.
There are vaccines, but their slow rollout means that it will take months before something resembling normal activities can be resumed at restaurants, hotels, gyms, airports, shopping malls and other people-dependent businesses.
“It’s very unequal,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at Oxford Economics, a forecasting and research group. “The recovery for the most vulnerable sections of the population will take years.” He noted that not only are wages and salaries declining for the heaviest segments of the labor force, but also overall employment and participation in the labor force.
At the very top, the profits were incredible. In the eight months since the pandemic hit the United States, the country’s wealth has grown by about $ 650 trillion, according to a November study by the Institute for Policy Studies and other progressive groups. That included a $ 70 billion lift for just one of the magnates: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.