About the 2022–23 MacroMonitor
Recovery from the pandemic is in its infancy; the effects on US households are profound and will be enduring. The wealthy get wealthier; more households than before are living on the edge; middle-class households have been hollowed out. Covid has intensified the country's economic fault lines along systemic divisions such as gender, race, generations, access, ownership, and geography.
A recession may have been avoided, but a "she-cession" has not. Unemployment numbers may be in decline, but an increased number of workers are unable to support families on a single or low-wage income. Even with low mortgage rates, home ownership—a household's largest wealth-building asset—is increasingly unaffordable. The number of single-family households continues to increase; population replacement is a negative number. As a result, interest in new products and services will have a more niche than mass appeal.
Market forces impact all household financial decisions. The scale, impact, and rapidity of market change caused by the global pandemic is breathtaking and will continue to develop; US households will be dealing with the altered landscape for some time. Household composition is more stratified than before (2018–19 MacroMonitor benchmark). Not all households were affected by the pandemic equally (2020–2021 MacroMonitor). The 2022–23 MacroMonitor is the next critically important marker for financial providers in the evolution of the country's economic recovery.
Anticipate the marketplace by looking at consumer financial data from different perspectives.