Poll: Half of Chicago Households Lost Jobs, Saw Wage Loss Or Depleted

A new NPR-Harvard poll surveyed residents in four major U.S. cities to get a deeper sense of the toll COVID-19 has had on our finances.

By Meha Ahmad
Diana Yitbarek seeks information about her unemployment claim in Washington, D.C., in July. Applications for jobless benefits nationwide have been dropping but remain very high by historical standards.
Diana Yitbarek seeks information about her unemployment claim in Washington, D.C., in July. Applications for jobless benefits nationwide have been dropping but remain very high by historical standards.
Diana Yitbarek seeks information about her unemployment claim in Washington, D.C., in July. Applications for jobless benefits nationwide have been dropping but remain very high by historical standards.
Diana Yitbarek seeks information about her unemployment claim in Washington, D.C., in July. Applications for jobless benefits nationwide have been dropping but remain very high by historical standards.

Poll: Half of Chicago Households Lost Jobs, Saw Wage Loss Or Depleted

A new NPR-Harvard poll surveyed residents in four major U.S. cities to get a deeper sense of the toll COVID-19 has had on our finances.

By Meha Ahmad
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At least half of Chicago-area households reported job loss, wage loss or depleted savings during the pandemic, according to a new poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

The poll surveyed residents in four major cities: Los Angeles, New York, Houston and Chicago. In all these cities, Black and brown residents bore the brunt of the pandemic’s financial hit. In Chicago, 69 percent of Black households and 63 percent of Latinx households reported facing serious financial problems since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Reset digs into the findings of the report, how the pandemic financially hit Chicago, and how that compares to other cities.

GUESTS: Joe Neel, NPR deputy senior supervising editor

Robert Blendon, executive director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program