New Harris Poll reveals financial strain on Main St.

The Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema spoke with Yahoo Finance about the latest Harris Poll and what it revealed about American consumers in the time of coronavirus.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: All right. Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. Well, as the coronavirus-related economic shutdown continues, we're starting to get a better sense of how Americans are feeling about their personal finances. John Gerzema is the CEO of the Harris Poll. And John, you guys have some new data out, showing that 3/4 of Americans believe their finances will be impacted. This is the kind of impact that I think we all fear when we look at the economy. The stock market today seems to be ignoring it. But it seems like the reality of this situation hasn't quite hit as many Americans as anticipate will be hit by this as we go forward.

JOHN GERZEMA: Yeah, that's right. And you know, at the Harris Poll, we've been in the field now almost three times a week since the beginning of the pandemic. And we've been tracking consumer sentiment on a range of different issues around how they're thinking about the pandemic. I think one of the really exciting things out of the data that just came out is that I think that there are two curves that Americans really now care about, right? They care about flattening the pandemic, and they care about the flattening of the economic hardship.

What we see in the data is, 62% of people, when we ask them the question, long-term, what do you think is going to be a bigger impact-- COVID-19 itself or the economics-- to your family? And 62% say the economics versus COVID-19. So clearly, they're starting to sort of pivot, which is the new word, right-- to kind of thinking beyond health, even to sort of reconciling the economics in this context.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey, John, it's Rick Newman. You know, a lot of economists trying to model this out are saying, we see this going on, you know-- this, it's going to take 12 to 18 months before the economy kind of gets back on its feet. And it may require a vaccine, which is perhaps that long away. Do people seem to understand that this could be a really long haul?

JOHN GERZEMA: You know, they do. And I think there's sort of two data points that we're trying to really get a better understanding of, which is sort of pre-vaccine world, where were you're going to potentially live in an economy that's going to be continuously interrupted, versus where we'll go back to normal. But I am seeing, you know, in the short term, definitely some concern. People, 1/4 of people are concerned in America that they're going to miss a bill payment. You know 1/5 stated they'll soon miss a rent mortgage payment. 60% are saying that they think that they can survive on their savings no longer than six month, some as short as one month.

So the short term picture is really bleak. But long term, there starts to become some things that are potentially more interesting. And I think that's the stuff that we are really sort of focused on, is this sense that Americans do want to get back to their lives. And I've got some really interesting data I think to share on that, when we start to think about how they think about shopping and travel.

AKIKO NISHIMAE: John, one of the numbers that stood out to me in your report was that 56% of Americans feel like they're working more now that they're working from home. And I wonder if part of it is that because we're dragging the work into the home, it feels like it's more work. But I'm wondering if you have heard from the other side, from the companies. You know, do they feel like this has been a lot more productive than maybe they thought going into it? And could this potentially stick, in terms of remote working beyond COVID?

JOHN GERZEMA: Yeah, I think that's really interesting for companies. Because what we're seeing, at least with American workers, is they feel, as you say, far more productive. I mean these are Zoom parents that are basically multitasking online education, focusing on getting their conference calls done. And in that context, they definitely feel more productive.

And so I think, as we look forward, not to say that we're going to short commercial real estate-- but you're going to start to see an emphasis, where I think people are going to be much more open and flexible to thinking about remote working situations. And so we're looking right now at Harris Poll to sort of look at-- short term and long term-- where we think these sort of changes are going to happen.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, John, I was talking to your colleague, Mark Penn, about some other surveys you guys were doing. And you know, we talked a little bit about mindset of Americans. And that's actually of course at the core of what you do. And sort of following up on what Akiko was asking just now, great. They're working more. How's your mental health? I mean, I don't know if you actually can track that. Or do you get a read on that? I mean, this is stressful, right?

JOHN GERZEMA: Yeah, Andy. It's really interesting-- the top two things that are really positive is that Americans feel greater connection to their family and their kids, and there's a lot of gratitude around that. And they're also feeling that patriotism. I think you might have touched on this with Mark the other day, that shelter in place is actually highly associated-- almost 9 out of 10 Americans associate that with doing their patriotic duty. So very much 9/11 sentiments.

But what's really interesting is how American routines are changing. We asked people you know how they're shifting in their grooming habits. And we see that 2/3 of people are sticking to the same. But 1/3, yeah. I've got those ZZ Top going on. But you know, what's happening is that people are shifting the time that they're taking showers, right? They're getting up and getting on their calls. So a lot of different changes are sort of happening in the house as it starts to become this workplace.

ANDY SERWER: Wow, OK.

MYLES UDLAND: I would, I would just speak for myself that I have a new routine here that I would really love to not give up on the other side of this. Because John, to your point, a lot more relaxing. In the morning, you get up. You enjoy your coffee slowly, and then ease into the day. John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll-- really appreciate you joining the show. And we'll talk to you soon.

JOHN GERZEMA: You too.