---
title: "Two Jobs, Less Security: The Household Arithmetic Before America’s Midterms"
description: "As prices outpace wages, workers cut spending and seek extra hours while Democrats gain ground on the economy"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-10-22T15:07:38Z
modified: 2026-10-23T04:38:19Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/two-jobs-less-security-the-household-arithmetic-before-ameri-7b730d
language: en
tags: ["economy", "inflation", "midterms", "wages", "underemployment", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Two Jobs, Less Security: The Household Arithmetic Before America’s Midterms

*As prices outpace wages, workers cut spending and seek extra hours while Democrats gain ground on the economy*

By Jan Sokol · October 22, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/two-jobs-less-security-the-household-arithmetic-before-ameri-7b730d

## In brief

- Florida business owner Stacy Eichel lost her healthcare marketing job in September 2025 as corporate orders weakened
- Reported annual hourly wage growth of 3% trailed consumer-price inflation of 3.7%
- A Pew survey found 44% of Americans had struggled to afford at least one essential expense in the preceding year
- Polls cited in the report put living costs first among voter concerns and gave Democrats an economic-management advantage
- Employers’ limited hiring leaves some workers seeking additional part-time hours to cover expenses

In September 2025, a merger took away Stacy Eichel’s healthcare marketing job. The Florida empty nester still had her own business supplying companies with branded coffee mugs, T-shirts and other promotional goods. But the moment she needed that business to provide more income was also the moment its customers were pulling back.

As [Andy Hirschfeld reports for Al Jazeera](https://aljazeera.com/economy/2026/10/22/rising-costs-and-tight-budgets-strain-americans-ahead-of-midterm-elections), Eichel had spent years combining healthcare work with her small enterprise. She described corporate customers cutting discretionary purchases amid tariff uncertainty, shifting trade policy and the expansion of artificial intelligence. At home, she cancelled cable. Restaurant meals and takeaway orders gave way to cooking.

Ahead of November’s midterm elections, her predicament exposes a distinction that employment totals cannot settle: having work and having enough to live on are separate conditions. A second occupation can be an opportunity. It can also become the support that fails just as the first one disappears.

## What the employment count leaves out

The broader U-6 measure of unemployment and underemployment stood at 7.6%, down from 8.1% a year earlier, according to Labor Department figures cited by Al Jazeera. That measure includes people working part-time involuntarily and some who want work but have stopped searching recently. The improvement is real within the measure; it does not establish that households have become financially secure.

![A cream chair stands on one cream leg and two navy briefcases, with a coral puddle beneath the right briefcase against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/1d882fda783e81145bfdffebcc78e3a07c5bcad7.webp)

The employment report cited in the same account counted 4.5 million people working part-time because full-time jobs were unavailable. Another 9 million held multiple jobs, representing 5.5% of employed workers. Those numbers describe different arrangements of working life, not a single category of hardship.

Tara Furiani, a workforce strategist in Richmond, Virginia, described graduates taking retail jobs, former executives accepting much lower pay, and parents piecing together positions that individually provide insufficient income, hours or benefits. An employment statistic records that someone is working. It cannot, by itself, say what has been surrendered to obtain that work.

The wage and price figures reported by Al Jazeera make the pressure more concrete. Annual hourly earnings growth was 3%, against consumer-price inflation of 3.7%. In the latest month cited, prices rose 0.6%, while hourly earnings increased 0.1%. Pay was rising, but purchasing power was slipping.

## The distance to cheaper apples

In New York City, video producer Joshua Teicher described advertising assignments declining after the COVID-19 pandemic, then becoming harder to find as clients reduced spending. He now receives Medicaid and draws on savings. Food and prescription costs have become difficult to meet.

![A cream staircase rises from an open dark purse toward a red apple and capsule against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/6c39e8bbe9b4a761212ba8d1234ccf19f02acc0b.webp)

Teicher told Al Jazeera that he forgoes an additional coffee costing about $5 and walks farther to buy cheaper apples. He also said he cannot afford surgery on his left knee after an operation on his right. Cartilage deterioration affects both knees; he reported that his legs are now slightly different lengths. Economising, in his account, means walking farther on knees that need treatment.

Transport adds another demand. Al Jazeera cited AAA’s national average petrol price of $4.29 a gallon—3.78 litres—on the Monday before publication, compared with $2.98 when US and Israeli strikes on Iran began in late February. The report connected the increase to continuing disruption in global markets.

The strain extends well beyond these households. A Pew Research Center survey published earlier in October found that 44% of Americans had struggled to afford at least one essential expense during the preceding year, including housing, transport, healthcare or food. Twenty percent had received help from a food bank or pantry.

## The ballot and the extra shift

In a Reuters/Ipsos survey cited by Al Jazeera, 47% of voters selected living expenses as their leading concern, against 22% choosing concerns about democratic principles. A Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos poll put Democrats ahead of Republicans on economic management, 40% to 33%. The report described it as the Democrats’ first advantage on that question in 12 years.

![A hand holds a long, blank strip of paper extending from a dark blue box against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/3589f08efb696938533b815e6e7165d5544651b5.webp)

For workers seeking a way out, the hiring market offers limited movement. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics JOLTS release cited in the report showed little change in vacancies or voluntary departures. Employers were restraining recruitment while keeping layoffs relatively subdued.

Babak Hafezi, an American University professor specialising in international business, said he had encountered highly qualified candidates unable to find employment for 12–18 months. Few alternatives can make workers reluctant to leave and weaken their bargaining position. In Brooklyn, coffee-shop owner Debbie Louis described teachers and people in other occupations regularly seeking another 15–20 hours of work each week to meet expenses.

Healthcare and hospitality had added employment over the preceding year. Hafezi warned that those gains could weaken or reverse in the following year, citing possible rural-hospital funding reductions associated with the Big Beautiful tax legislation and immigration policies discouraging international visitors. He also attributed weaker purchasing power and consumption to tariffs and inflation.

There is no uniform household economy behind the national figures. Conference Board findings cited by Al Jazeera showed greater optimism among higher-income consumers, supported by investments and larger financial cushions. Furiani argued for judging work by pay, available hours, dependable schedules, benefits and prospects for advancement. At Louis’s coffee shop, the requests were more immediate: another 15–20 hours.