Residents of South Dakota are delaying major purchases, making use of their savings and working more in order to deal with the lingering recession, according to a survey released by Citibank (NYSE: C) this year.
The survey that was commissioned by Citigroup, which has a major presence in the state, found that 46% of South Dakota residents had delayed at least one major purchase, such as an automobile. An additional 34% took money out of savings or investments to help pay for living expenses and 33% are working additional hours to take care of daily expenses.
In a statement made by Citibank’s South Dakota spokesperson, Jerry Nachtigal, the company said “Clearly, consumers in South Dakota have taken pause.”
On a positive note, South Dakotans appear to be more optimistic about the state of the economy than the rest of the nation. The survey said that about half of South Dakota’s residence believe that the country’s economic situation hasn’t hit bottom yet, whereas that number is at 63% on a national basis.
Nachtigal said that some of that difference could be attributed to the state’s relatively low unemployment rate, which is currently at 5%. Nachtigal commented, “We don’t have quite as much ground to make up,” he said.
Citigroup says that it commissioned the survey in hopes of determining how consumers are dealing with “worst financial times that any of us who didn’t grow up in the Depression have ever lived through.”
Nachtigal said that the company’s credit card division, which has a major office in Sioux Falls, SD, watches the state’s unemployment numbers closely. “Every customer that loses his or her job is somebody that’s probably going to struggle to pay their credit card bill,” he said.
