Silver State Times

The latest inflation number now sits at 8.5%. As the economy continues to worsen, retirees who are on a fixed income are feeling the wallet squeeze worse than a lot of Americans and current predictions say they'll be forced to find another source of income.

"Are the retirees going to un-retire?" asked Rick Santelli, editor of CNBC Business News Network. "This is going to answer it, and the answer is yes."

While rising prices are squeezing Americans' household budgets in every state, an additional strain is being placed on an estimated 56 million residents age 65 and older, The Washington Post reported. Many of these seniors rely on fixed incomes and limited savings to cover monthly costs for prolonged and unpredictable periods, the story said.

According to the Elder Index, a cost-of-living measure created by the Gerontology Institute at Boston's University of Massachusetts, about half of older people who live alone are struggling to get by on less than $27,000 a year — or the bare minimum for a single renter in good health to cover expenses.

“Any small change in circumstance — rising prices, a medical emergency — can throw an older person’s budget completely out of whack,” Jan Mutchler, director of the institute, told The Washington Post.

On average, 15.4% of Nevada's population is 65 or older.

On April 12, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the 12 months ending March 2022. The data showed an 8.5% all-items annual increase, which is the largest increase in over 40 years, since 1981.

According to the BLS, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.8% from February to March, and dropped 2.7%, seasonally adjusted, from March 2021 to March 2022.

With the -2.7% wage inflation for March 2022, the median household income in the state of Nevada has seen a -$1,630 year-over-year loss, bringing the current average household income to $60,365 a year, World Population Review reported.