While the White House takes a victory lap for a booming stock market that recently surged to a record high, everyday Americans face a far grimmer reality—one marked by deteriorating finances, rising job insecurity, and widespread layoffs that seem impossible to escape. And the proof is in the data. The numbers from a new Federal Reserve survey reveal a sharp and troubling shift in America’s economy under the Trump administration, which is disproportionately impacting Black adults.
The Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) shows that more than two out of five adults had concerns about finding or keeping a job in 2025—a 37% increase in 2024. For Black Americans, employment uncertainty has made them significantly more likely to report major concerns about paying their bills, and more than twice as likely as their white, non-Hispanic peers to report layoffs.
Between 2024 and 2025, under the Trump-Vance economy, Black adults who confirmed they experienced job loss increased by about three percentage points— the largest increase among all racial and ethnic groups, SHED revealed.
The survey not only showed that Black adults are in the worst financial position in nearly a decade, but the percentage of those surveyed last year who were “doing okay” or “living comfortably” has declined by almost five percentage points to 60%.
And higher education hasn’t helped.
Related: Inside the Unnecessary Renovations Trump Is Making In and Around the White House
Nearly all Black adults—regardless of their education level—experienced a deterioration of their financial position last year, including adults with a college education, according to SHED. The share of Black individuals with higher education doing okay or living comfortably declined by nearly seven percentage points last year, the Economic Policy Institute reported.
According to SHED, 77.5% of Black adults reported that making ends meet was at least a minor concern for them last year, but that number has increased by about eight percentage points. However, when it comes to white, non-Hispanic adults who reported similar fears, that number actually fell during the same period.
As the costs for basic needs like rent, groceries and gas are outpacing earnings around the nation, rising costs could jeopardize Black middle-income families’ financial stability the most. Nearly 40% of Black middle-income earners struggle to afford necessities where they live, according to Brookings, a non-profit public policy think tank that conducts independent, nonpartisan research.
While white Americans under the age of 25 hold 16 times the wealth of their Black peers, per Brookings, young Black Americans have disproportionately less wealth to bolster their finances.
Even the U.S. Treasury Department noted the stark difference between the races regarding the national affordability crisis. When it comes to racial disparities in homeownership, “white households, regardless of the age of the household head, had homeownership rates at least 10 percentage points higher than Black and Hispanic households.”
These disparities don’t just stop with the current generation—the effects extend far into the future. “For younger households, homeownership facilitates wealth accumulation early in their working years, which builds on itself and can later be used to pay for unexpected expenses, kids’ education, or retirement,” the Treasury Department wrote. Because “younger adults are delaying household formation and home purchases, these benefits are diminishing for younger generations, which are increasingly diverse across races and ethnic groups.”
