97 Million Full-Time Workers Are Now Living Paycheck to Paycheck

This may not come as a shock to many, but Americans are pretty undisciplined when it comes to money. According to data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, the personal saving rate in June 2017 was a measly 3.8%. In effect, it means working Americans are putting away just $3.80 for every $100 they earn. For the average American earning $30,000 annually, that equates to just $1,140 a year in savings.

Of course, that assumes the average American is saving money, which isn't always the case. A study from GoBankingRates, conducted last year, found that 69% of the Americans it surveyed had less than $1,000 in savings, including about a third of respondents who had a big goose egg -- $0.

So, what are we doing with our money? Considering that the U.S. economy is 70% based on consumption, we're probably buying things. In fact, we're probably buying more stuff than we can reasonably afford. The Federal Reserve recently released data showing that aggregate credit card debt had hit an all-time high of $1.027 trillion, eclipsing the previous high that was set before the Great Recession. Add in well over a trillion in auto-loan and student-loan debt, and we have a growing profile of debts that Americans are struggling to pay.

These data points paint a pretty scary picture, but they're nothing compared to the newest survey from CareerBuilder.

A staggering number of full-time workers are living paycheck to paycheck

According to the latest survey, conducted on CareerBuilder's behalf by Harris Poll, 78% of U.S. full-time workers are now living paycheck to paycheck, up from 75% in 2016, to make ends meet. If we utilize full-time employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2016 (123.8 million full-time workers), it means about 97 million of those full-time workers are living paycheck to paycheck. That includes 23% who said they always lived paycheck to paycheck, 17% who claimed they usually do, and 38% who noted that they sometimes do.

What was particularly interesting about CareerBuilder's survey is that well-to-do individuals weren't free of financial issues. Roughly 9% of workers making $100,000 or more annually was living paycheck to paycheck, and 59% of these highest-income folks were carrying around debt. In the middle-income to middle-upper-income bracket of $50,000 to $99,999 in annual income, 28% were living paycheck to paycheck, and 70% were in debt.

Credit to Msn.com