Financial satisfaction of people in the U.S. rebounded strongly in the third quarter of the year, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs, reversing the lows in the second quarter in the midst of the recession brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The AICPA’s Q3 2020 Personal Financial Satisfaction Index measured 33.1, representing a whopping 99 percent (16.5 point) increase from the previous quarter. That’s the biggest quarterly increase in the 27-year history of the PFSi, and a complete turnaround from the second quarter, when the index had its largest ever quarterly drop.
Pascal Desmarets is the founder and CEO of Hackolade. He leads all corporate efforts of producing visual tools to smooth the onboarding of NoSQL technology in corporate IT landscapes.
Adi Dar, CEO and founder, is an experienced cybersecurity leader and chief executive who has repeatedly lead the development and launch of successful products and services in highly competitive markets. Previously, as CEO of ELOP (Israel’s largest Electro Optics company), Dar led the company’s growth to over $500M annual revenues. During this 6 year period, Dar also served as an Executive VP at Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defense company. Prior to that he was the VP of Business Development and Sales at ELOP. Before ELOP, he founded the Intelligence and Cyber division at Elbit and was at the helm for 2 years. Prior to his positions in Elbit Systems he was the vice president of business development and marketing at Elron Telesoft Ltd. Dar holds a holds a B.Sc. in industrial engineering from the Technion and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Jim Scully is Leapgen’s HR Delivery Transformation practice leader. He has spent the last 22 years in the field of HR service delivery, both as a consultant and corporate practitioner. Scully’s primary focus is designing and implementing HR service delivery models that achieve business results through technology-enabled process excellence. Scully was the founder of the HR Shared Services Institute (HRSSI); the services of which are now a part of Leapgen. This post originally ran on Leapgen’s blog page.
The PFSi is built around various factors, including the labor market. The gains can be mainly attributed to improvements in job openings per capita and underemployment. Those had the biggest impact on increasing the overall PFSi. The biggest factor driving the quarter-over-quarter rally was a 35 percent (37 point) decrease in underemployment. A decrease in underemployment improves overall financial satisfaction in the index. While there was an improvement in underemployment in the third quarter from Q2’s record high, it’s still 117 percent above its level a year ago. For the second consecutive quarter, underemployment is still the biggest negative contributor to the average American’s personal financial satisfaction. The Q3 underemployment level reflects data measured through the middle of September.
“As Americans continue to navigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to remember that the fundamentals of financial planning haven’t changed,” said AICPA PFS Credential Committee chair Dave Stolz in a statement Thursday. “Though the stock market’s record performance is encouraging, 2020 has served as a reminder of the volatile nature of markets. As the impact of COVID-19 continues to play out across the country, investors should weigh their risk tolerance and ensure they have ample cash on hand. Further, a tax-efficient financial plan that includes a diversified portfolio can give confidence that long-term financial goals will remain within reach through this period of extreme uncertainty.”
The coronavirus put millions out of work, prompting job openings per capita to show a record plummet earlier this year. In the third quarter, job openings started to recover, climbing 37 percent (20 points) compared to Q2. That factor is now only 10 percent below its measurement a year ago before the pandemic. The Q3 index comes from July data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
