About 64 percent of Pennsylvanians who responded to a Quinnipiac survey in early January described their financial situation as excellent or good; 24 percent rated it “not so good” and only 9 percent rated it bad. But in the same survey, only 33 percent of Pennsylvanians described “the state of the nation's economy” as excellent or good.
Frustration expressed over rising gas and food prices, landlords raising rents and insurance companies raising premiums still fuels small conversations among friends. Home prices have skyrocketed, a blessing for homeowners but a curse for those seeking to join their ranks. Child and elder care costs, which were rising before the pandemic, continue to rise. (And beyond necessities like car insurance, there are annoyances over the $4 bag of chips in the checkout aisle, or the $10 pint of beer that used to cost $7.)
The most popular measure of national consumer confidence, tracked by the University of Michigan since 1978, has reached its highest level since July 2021, before the worst of inflation hit. But the feeling has not fully recovered. It remains suspended halfway between its record low in June 2022, when inflation peaked at 9 percent, and its peak in the 21st century, around New Year's Eve 2019.
“Trying to be happy is hard,” said Lindsay Danella, a native of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
At 39, she recently left a job earning more than $70,000 as a general manager at a hotel where she said executives dealt with staff shortages during and after the pandemic by asking managers like her to do more of everything. without offering more flexibility or salary.
Now, as a waitress at Levity Brewing in downtown Altoona, she makes the legal minimum wage for tipped workers in the state, about $3, but she says she's found ways to “love it” despite that low base. Business is good, so tips are plentiful on the weekends. And the tavern, opened in 2022 in a remodeled space with floor-to-ceiling windows, is part of a district that has been revitalized since 2021.
