the US inflation rate has come down significantly since hitting a 40-year high in 2022 but most people are still feeling the severe effects of cost of living increases High inflation is causing especially Black and Hispanic new jerseyans a new report by the ruer Center for Women and work finds nonwhite households take a harder hit because they often have lower average incomes and less to Shield them from price increases for more on this I'm joined by Jana Rogers an economist and faculty director of the Center for Women and work Jana thanks so much for joining me you know it's one thing to talk about inflation it's another to really look at who it's hitting hardest why aside from average salary are nonwhite households feeling this the most we found when we looked in detail at which goods and services Rose the most in price that nonwhite households are consuming more of the goods and services that Rose the most in price so in particular Transportation know especially gas uh new cars car insurance that Rose a lot in price and we saw that Black and Hispanic households consume relatively more Transportation items than other households so they were hit hard by that um other categories included food and beverages um as well as housing so those are the big three they Rose the most and those vulnerable households consumed them more relatively more than other households so it's not just how much income you're getting it's how that money is spent that really determines whether or not you can absorb these changes it sounds like exactly uh everybody in New Jersey has been hit by inflation but some were hit more than others uh because of what they consume but also as you just said it's also based on their uh income and whether or not they have solid employment so some households are more vulnerable because their incomes are lower or they may not have a full-time income earner and so are there programs or safety nets that the state has or needs to have based on the center's findings to help cushion this for residents that's a great question uh we advocate in our report generally for a stronger social safety net because some people still downplay the need for a strong social safety net New Jersey is already a leader in terms of progressive labor market policies but our report is there to emphasize that this kind of social spending does not go uh in vain that it's really needed especially by vulnerable households Jana was there a difference between uh if a male was head of household versus a female about how that spending impacted or what the spending was going toward impacted the inflation hits that they were taking that is a really good question um we went into the report thinking that women headed households would be harder hit by me than men uh that was not the case again because uh largely that Transportation item Transportation Rose so much more than other categories and Men spend proportionately more on Transportation than women so if we look only at who consumes what uh men were actually a little bit harder hit by inflation than women in New Jersey but once you add in who's more able to absorb those pric increases uh that's men their average earnings are higher they also have higher employment rates really interesting findings there Jana Rogers for us from the ruers Center for Women and work Jana thank you thank you Brianna