Some Continue Savings Cutbacks to Get By

A CareerBuilder news release said 33% reported no retirement savings program participation and 30% said they don’t put any money aside into savings each month. Twenty-eight percent set aside $100 or less per month for savings and 14% save less than $50.

Overall, according to the announcement, 77% of workers said they live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet, a good bit higher than the 61% of workers who said the same last year. Meanwhile, 22% of respondents said they have missed payments on bills in the last year.

In response, workers have made a variety of changes to their living and spending habits to help get by, including:

• Cut back on leisure activities – 54%
• Used coupons or shopped at discount stores – 48%
• Drove less to save on gas – 37%
• Cancelled cable and other subscriptions – 12%
• Used public transportation – 5%

“The last 18 months have required some workers to tighten their day-to-day spending and make some adjustments to their financial futures,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, in the news release.

The survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 2,534 U.S. hiring managers and 4,498 U.S. workers (employed full-time; not self-employed; non government); ages 18 and over between May 18 and June 3, 2010.