Nebraska bankruptcy filings plummet for second-straight year
When bankruptcy filings fell nearly 20% in Nebraska in 2020, experts said it was likely a one-time fluke due in large part to federal stimulus programs and eviction moratoriums put in place to deal with the economic fallout due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Because of that, bankruptcy filings were expected to increase significantly last year.
Not only did that not happen, but filings declined by an even larger percentage.
In 2021, only 2,589 Nebraskans filed bankruptcy, a 22.5% decline over 2020. Since 2019, bankruptcy filings have fallen more than 37% to their lowest levels in decades.
The bankruptcy numbers in Nebraska were similar to what the nation as a whole saw in 2021, with total bankruptcies down 24%, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
“We are all just guessing about why the big decline has occurred,” said Sam Turco, a bankruptcy attorney based in Omaha.
Turco said he suspects a number of factors have combined to keep filings low, including extensions to emergency pandemic economic actions, such as eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, and deferments of student loan payments. Economic stimulus checks and advanced child credit tax payments also likely are keeping people from filing bankruptcy, he said.
The so-called “great resignation,” which involves record numbers of people voluntarily quitting jobs, is a factor, too, Turco said, because those who aren’t working don’t face wage garnishments.
“You file bankruptcy not when you owe debt but when collection of the debt hits the paycheck,” he said. “Until workers return to employment and face garnishments, bankruptcy rates will be low.”
While the drop in raw numbers is driven by a decline in personal bankruptcies, the category to see the biggest percentage drop was farm bankruptcies.
In 2021, there were 17 Chapter 12 bankruptcies, a 50% drop from the 34 filed in 2020. It was the lowest number of agricultural bankruptcies since 2016.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said stimulus programs also played a big role in reducing farm bankruptcies and keep business bankruptcies relatively steady, especially the Paycheck Protection Program.
Goss said supportive Federal Reserve policies, such as keeping interest rates low, also played a role in boosting the finances of businesses and farmers.
Another Fed policy — increasing the money supply by 35-40% — helped businesses and farmers, too, by reducing the value of the dollar, which made Nebraska farm products and manufactured goods more competitive internationally and led to higher sales, he said.
“Compared to the same period in 2020, U.S. exports of ag and manufactured goods for 2021 were over 20% higher,” Goss said.
For his part, Turco believes bankruptcies will start to rise sometime in 2022, especially if home foreclosures increase.
He said he’s also concerned about surging inflation, which hit a 40-year high of 7% in December.
“If inflation gets out of hand, we will face a severe economic problem similar to the late 1970s,” Turco said. “That is the big question looming over this economy — will inflation trigger higher interest rates and falling asset prices?”
The states where the most people worked remote because of COVID-19
States Where the Most People Worked Remote Because of COVID-19
Photo Credit: thanmano / Shutterstock
The widespread turn to remote work was one of the most prominent effects of the COVID-19 economy. When the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, organizations across the U.S. and the world adapted quickly to accommodate their distributed teams. Fueled by the need to abide by social distancing protocols, employers accelerated the trend toward remote work, making new digital collaboration technologies ubiquitous among the professional class.
This summer, as vaccines became widely available, employers’ stances toward remote work have begun to look more complicated. While some businesses have made hybrid and remote work permanent, a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 72% of supervisors would prefer their employees to be back in the office, believing remote arrangements to be worse for networking and collaboration. But as the Delta variant continues to spread this fall, more offices may find themselves delaying or reversing their plans to resume in-person work. Meanwhile, data shows that employees would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, with 55% of employees saying they’d like to be remote at least three days a week.
About 30% of adults live in households with 1 remote worker
Even though remote workers currently constitute a minority of the U.S. workforce, recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, shows that approximately 30% of adults live in a household with at least one remote worker. This data was collected from mid-April—when vaccines first became available to all adults—through early July—when cases began to rise again. Despite a minority of adults working from home today, certain experts predict a dramatic rise in the coming years, where more than 70% of the workforce could be remote at least one week a month by 2025.
Beyond some employers’ preferences for having workers in the office, the larger reason why remote workers represent a relatively small portion of the workforce is that many professions and industries simply cannot operate remotely. Workers in major industries like food and hospitality, retail, and manufacturing are among those who must be physically present to work.
Higher income households were more likely to shift to remote work
This fact also has the effect of reflecting income inequality between remote and in-person workers. The Household Pulse Survey data shows a strong correlation between median household income and the percentage of adults in households with a remote worker. This suggests that many higher-earning professions easily moved online, while most low-wage hourly jobs could not do so. This divide has created even greater burdens on lower-earning Americans, as the Household Pulse Survey data also reveals a correlation between being unable to work remotely and having difficulty paying household expenses. With the recent expiration of government supports like the eviction moratorium and expanded unemployment benefits, this could make low-wage workers’ financial position even more tenuous as the Delta variant continues to spread.
MD and MA reported the most people teleworking due to COVID-19
The divergence across industries and income levels also means that remote work is unevenly distributed by geography. Many of the states that have the most households with members working remotely also have more workers in white collar jobs with higher earnings. The two states that had the greatest share of adults in households with a remote worker due to COVID—Maryland at 37.4% and Massachusetts at 37%—also have the highest median household incomes at $86,738 and $85,843, respectively. In contrast, Mississippi has both the lowest share of households with a remote worker at 11.1% and the lowest median income at $45,792. This disparity is also likely due to a higher number of in-person jobs in Mississippi, where demand is high for jobs in food, retail, production, and transportation.
To determine the states where the most people worked remotely because of COVID-19, researchers at Teamflow used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey to calculate the percentage of adults in households where at least one adult worked from home because of the coronavirus pandemic in the past seven days, averaged over the survey weeks during which this question was asked: April 14, 2021 through July 5, 2021. Notably, this only includes those who worked remotely because of the pandemic, and not those that would have done so regardless. In the event of a tie, the state with the higher number of adults in these households was ranked higher.
Here are the states where the most people worked remotely because of COVID.
15. Oregon
Photo Credit: Bob Pool / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 27.5%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 905,959
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 13.9%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 24.2%
- Median household income: $67,058
14. Delaware
Photo Credit: Jon Bilous / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 27.8%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 211,559
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 10.0%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 24.2%
- Median household income: $70,176
13. New Hampshire
Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 28.4%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 304,889
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 7.6%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 21.2%
- Median household income: $77,933
12. New York
Photo Credit: Victor Moussa / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 28.6%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 4,141,233
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 16.1%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 29.5%
- Median household income: $72,108
11. Connecticut
Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 28.8%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 772,712
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 11.0%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 25.7%
- Median household income: $78,833
10. Illinois
Photo Credit: Oleg Podzorov / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 28.8%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 2,705,697
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 12.9%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 25.5%
- Median household income: $69,187
9. California
Photo Credit: yhelfman / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 30.2%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 8,889,098
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 18.3%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 28.9%
- Median household income: $80,440
8. Minnesota
Photo Credit: Checubus / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 31.6%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 1,333,846
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 9.0%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 19.4%
- Median household income: $74,593
7. Virginia
Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 31.7%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 2,042,937
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 11.0%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 24.3%
- Median household income: $76,456
6. Washington
Photo Credit: Jeremy Janus / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 31.8%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 1,867,950
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 13.1%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 23.3%
- Median household income: $78,687
5. Utah
Photo Credit: Maciej Bledowski / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 32.1%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 737,725
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 7.1%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 20.1%
- Median household income: $75,780
4. New Jersey
Photo Credit: Mihai_Andritoiu / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 32.7%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 2,177,152
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 14.3%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 26.2%
- Median household income: $85,751
3. Colorado
Photo Credit: Nicholas Courtney / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 32.7%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 1,457,040
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 10.9%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 23.6%
- Median household income: $77,127
2. Massachusetts
Photo Credit: ESB Professional / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 37.0%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 1,937,975
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 11.9%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 20.6%
- Median household income: $85,843
1. Maryland
Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
- Percentage of adults in households with a remote worker: 37.4%
- Total adults in households with a remote worker: 1,689,976
- Percentage of adults in households with expected income loss: 12.9%
- Percentage of adults in households with difficulty paying expenses: 25.2%
- Median household income: $86,738
Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
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