Money and work become biggest stressors for majority U.S. people

BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Money and work have become the biggest stressors for majority people in the United States, a report on the human rights situation in the United States in 2007 released on Thursday said.

The report, The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007, issued by the Information Office of China's State Council, or cabinet, has been prepared to help people around the world understand the real situation of human rights in the United States.

It underlined that although the past five years have witnessed relatively strong growth in the U.S. economy, the fortunes of millions of U.S. people just get worse.

The ratio of American wage expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP) has dropped to the lowest since records began in 1947.

The average income of households consisting of members at working age has seen a continuous decline in the past five years, and is 17 percent less than five years ago, the report said, quoting a coverage by American newspaper U.S. News & World Report.

According to a national survey on the state of stress in the United States conducted in September 2007, money and work were the biggest stressors for almost three-quarters of Americans, the report said.

Of the 1,848 adults polled, 51 percent worried about housing costs. Housing was a "very significant or somewhat significant" source of pressure for 61 percent of the residents in the West and 55 percent those in the East, figures reported by USA Today were quoted.

According to a latest report by the U.S. government, suicide rate among Americans aged 45-54 rose by about 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the highest since records began 25 years ago, the report said.