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The price of oil ranks at the top of Americans' economic concerns right now, but it's not the only reason consumers feel squeezed.
Boston resident Toni Carter doesn't drive to work but has a handful of challenges on her mind:
- Slim pay raises.
- Replacing her part-time job with a full-time one.
- Paying down the debts she and her husband owe -- including one for heating oil.
"We still owe a bill from the winter," she says. "The oil company allowed us to go on a payment plan. I expect that we'll pay our winter heating bill all through the summer."
Carter isn't sure if they can afford a driving trip to visit in-laws in upstate New York this summer.
Yet, as American households go, they're not in particularly bad shape. As renters, for example, they don't have a big home loan. Millions of Americans are feeling more money stress.
Rising consumer prices and sliding home values have ratcheted up the pressure in the past year or so. The current economic slowdown is also exacerbating longer-term trends, such as rising debt levels, lean income gains and the fact that many are underemployed -- working less than they'd like.
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Meanwhile, the labor market is cooling, making it tougher to get pay raises or find new jobs.
These challenges are not confined to any one region of the country. But in Boston, as elsewhere, middle- and lower-income residents face the greatest stress.
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Will we dodge a recession?Consecutive quarters of negative growth is the standard definition, and the economy grew last quarter. More recent data offer reasons for optimism, and pessimism.
Neither her wages nor a tax-rebate check -- designed by the federal government to stimulate the economy -- are enough to keep pace.
"I feel secure at that job," she says. But with small annual pay raises, "you're not going to catch up."
For Brown, the pinch of higher prices comes just as she's stretching to send one of her three kids to college.
Continued: Debt loads are rising
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