Enrollment in Medicaid and federal food assistance and welfare programs surged. So did rents and vehicle accidents, including a collision last year when a Haitian without a U.S. driver's license drove into a school bus, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark and injuring 26 other children.
The number of affordable housing vouchers fell as landlords moved to market-based rents that were rising in the face of higher demand, a blow to existing residents relying on them.
Local rents did increase at the third-fastest pace among cities from May 2022 through the end of 2023, rising at a 14.6% annualized pace, data from Zillow shows. But the market also appears to be normalizing: Rents this year have risen at a modest 3.2% pace, 68th fastest among 400 cities sampled.
Local wages were slow to take off during the post-pandemic job market reshuffling, data from Chmura Economics & Analytics' JobsEQ shows. But through the years associated with rising Haitian immigration, wages grew at a more than 6% annual pace for more than two years, about twice as long as seen nationally.
As Powell suggested, the process may have run its course. With the national labor market also cooling, wage growth in Springfield is down to 1.1%, job openings remain strong but the pace of hiring has slowed, and the unemployment rate has started to rise - faster here than nationally.
