York (United States) (AFP) – At 21 years old, Zackree Kline works at a funeral parlor and as a waiter, clocking 60 hours a week to get by — a situation motivating him to vote for Republican Donald Trump in November. “I work every single day of the week. I never have a day off,” Kline told AFP at a restaurant in York, a town of 45,000 in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is among the seven key battleground states that could decide the 2024 presidential election. While it was once reliably Democratic, the race is tight these days. Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris have campaigned repeatedly in the eastern state.
“I’ve had two jobs for, actually, probably about three and a half years now,” said Kline. But he added: “Luckily, I love both my jobs, so I don’t have an issue with working too often.” “A lot of people here have two plus jobs,” he said. Kline blames the higher costs of living, with the United States experiencing soaring inflation in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. He usually sleeps just five hours a night, adding: “It has been hard to find a balance, but you got to do what you got to do to make ends meet.” He considers himself lucky to have had some savings and was able to buy a house recently. “I know a lot of people are still in favor of Trump, just because everything was a lot lower when he was president,” he said. Trump won York County with about 60 percent of the vote in both 2016 and 2020.
– ‘Safety net’ – As of August, 5.3 percent of US workers held multiple jobs, according to Labor Department figures. This translates to 8.5 million people, and the level is comparable to that of 2019. “It’s not surprising that in order to supplement household income, that you would see people go out and get a second job,” said Mike Faulkender, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland. Faulkender, a former Treasury official under the Trump administration, added: “If it’s a result of economic stress, you would think that that would bode poorly for the party that’s currently occupying the White House.”
For 30-year-old middle school math teacher Brianna Smith, a second salary working 12-25 hours a week at a supermarket offers a “safety net.” Teaching full-time is “doable” financially but “sometimes it just feels like I need both incomes,” she said. “Inflation, of course, definitely made me pick up more,” she said of her hours. Smith hopes she can soon work just one job, quipping that her students take up “a lot of my energy.” As for improving her financial situation, she says she does not think either presidential candidate is better than the other.
– A lifestyle – In the late 1990s, the rates of multiple jobholders were “much higher,” said economist Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute. For some workers like Gary Jones, this “became part of my lifestyle too.” Five days a week, from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, he maintains the premises of the York YMCA. Then, until 9:30 pm or 10:00 pm, he works in the warehouse of a parcel delivery company. “It just makes the extra money. You know, the way the economy is, what gas costs you today,” the 58-year-old said.
Jones has seen inflation drive small firms out of business in recent years, adding: “Stores that were family-owned, or restaurants that were family-owned, no longer exist.” While he would not reveal who he plans to vote for in November, he said: “We pray that they will make the right decision, do the right thing.”
© 2024 AFP
