Buildup of Excess Savings St. Louis Federal Reserve BankThe pre-virus savings level was $1.2 trillion. Personal savings stood at $2.4 trillion in August, not all that far from the pre-virus average level of $1.2 trillion. Don’t be fooled by the headline unemployment rate for August indicating a lower unemployment rate (7.9% vs. 8.4% for July). The Payroll survey data bears this out as most of the job gains in that survey were in the low wage sectors (leisure/hospitality, retail trade, transportation/warehousing). That is a real unemployment rate of more than 17%.

Source: Forbes October 04, 2020 18:33 UTC