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August 4, 2024 - The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned last week.

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Why we asked about how people feel: Having recently dropped What the Future: Leisure, we know that we’re working fewer hours than in the past, but that our time isn’t then suddenly filled with leisure. It’s filled with… all kinds of other overhead: keeping our household Wi-Fi running, sitting in traffic, schlepping our kids to softball, etc. Also, let’s face it, the world is in a bonkers polypermacrisis or perhaps even permacrises. So we thought we should check in with everyone and see how they’re doing. We’ll come back to this every few months.  

What we found: Overall we’re in pretty good shape, individually. But that’s more true for the full-time employed (and the retired). Almost everyone says their relationships with others are going well, our ability to unplug from our screens (when was the last time you saw a 99% in a survey???). We rate our physical and mental health pretty highly. We’re less sure about the amount of sleep we get, although it seems that the part-time workers are using some of that “part” to sleep in. But our stress levels are the least positive of the battery. Only six of ten full-time workers rate their stress levels as “good.” Tellingly, only 45% of those who aren’t employed (or retired) say the same. Retirees are chilling in all their pickleball-playing glory, it seems.

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Is Buy Now, Pay Later here to stay? Here’s what the data says

Here’s what makes somewhere the best place to live

The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about?
Source: Ipsos