Labor Sentiment
Sentiment regarding employment opportunities is similarly bleak, with 52 percent saying the job market has barely recovered since the recession, Pew’s survey shows. Payrolls are still down 1.9 million employees from the January 2008 peak, according to Labor Department data.
Such figures help explain why some Americans are seeking unorthodox ways to supplement their incomes. Hare, who has a 4-month-old son and 7-year-old daughter, researched selling her breast milk online after seeing she could make as much as $5 an ounce.
“These are tough times,” said Hare, who was last employed as a showroom sales manager at a wholesale trade center. “The rich are getting richer and everybody else is losing their jobs and their homes. It’s just terrible.”