Dealing with the raging inflation has pretty much consumed all of 2022 for American consumers. And to deal with rising living expenses over the previous 12 months, many people have exhausted their savings accounts and built up significant credit card debt.
The fact that there was no federal Stimulus Check funding to rely on when inflation spiked made the last year much more challenging (though some states have issued their own payments to residents). Before the rate of inflation actually began to increase, in March 2021, the final round of government stimulus checks to reach American bank accounts was approved.
The federal government hasn’t needed to send any additional stimulus checks this year, which is why they haven’t. And even if that could alter in 2023, it.
Will There Be More Stimulus Checks?
And while that might change in 2023, a lot will depend on one crucial number. The country’s unemployment rate was 6% in March 2021. Although the American Rescue Plan Stimulus Check package was adopted by lawmakers before that data was widely publicized, the unemployment rate in February 2021 was still a bit higher at 6.2%.
In contrast, the unemployment rate was 3.5% in February 2020, just before the epidemic began to spread. For perspective, the national unemployment rate was 3.8% to 3.5% between February 2019 and February 2020. After the epidemic, the unemployment rate shot up to 14.7% in April 2020 before slowly starting to decline again.
The unemployment rate was nearly twice as high when lawmakers decided to give stimulus payments in March 2021 as compared to just before the outbreak. However, unemployment has been low this year.
All in all, there has been plenty of employment throughout the year. In fact, to provide more context, the unemployment rates in 2022 are essentially the lowest ever recorded in the previous 20 years. Therefore, it is simple to understand why lawmakers decided against providing stimulus money.
