Fed Report Finds Stable Finances, But Pressure is Building For Many Households

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Elizabeth Guevara

Full Bio Elizabeth Guevara is a personal finance reporter who explains the world of business and economics and how it impacts your finances. She joined Investopedia in 2024.

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Published May 13, 2026

05:24 PM EDT

Concerns about keeping or finding jobs spiked in 2025. Spencer Platt / Getty Images

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The U.S. Federal Reserve released its annual report on Americans' financial well-being Wednesday.
• While economic numbers showed growth, Americans' sentiment on the economy turned more negative in 2025.
• More Americans worried about finding or keeping a job in 2025 than the year before, the Fed found.

Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise.

Americans' financial well-being held steady overall in 2025, but slipped for young adults, Black adults, and low-income households, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

The Fed's annual report on the economic well-being of U.S. households found that about one-fourth of adults rated the economy good or excellent in 2025, a small decline from 2024. However, it was a 24 percentage-point drop from 2019.1 Concerns about inflation were also down, even as many Americans were turning to credit cards and buy now pay later plans to make ends meet.2

Young adults in particular struggled. Fifteen percent of adults under 30 said they were not working because they couldn't find a job, up from 13% in 2024 and three times the rate among adults 30 and older.3 About half of adults under 30 were living with a parent, up 12 percentage points since 2019.

Why This Matters

The annual Fed report on Americans' financial well-being is one of the most detailed looks at how American households are faring, covering income, savings, debt, housing, and work. The 2025 edition shows pressure building unevenly, with many losing ground even as the overall figures held stable.

The Fed's survey mirrored a split found in broader economic data for 2025. The economy expanded, though more slowly than in 2024.4 Inflation cooled, with the Consumer Price Index ending the year at 2.7%, down from 2.9% a year earlier.5 But hiring slowed: revised Bureau of Labor Statistics data released in February showed U.S. employers added 181,000 jobs over the year, the slowest pace outside a recession since 2003.6

In the Fed survey, 42% of adults said finding or keeping a job was a major or minor concern, up 5 percentage points from 2024. In addition, a lower share of Americans left their jobs voluntarily, suggesting fewer people felt they could find a better job somewhere else.1

While their economic outlook darkened, consumers reported being less worried about prices in 2025.

Price increases remained the most common financial concern overall. More than nine in 10 adults said price increases were a "major" or "minor" concern, unchanged from last year. But the share calling them a "major" concern fell 3 percentage points.7

That dip in "major" concern was concentrated among higher-income adults, while lower-income Americans' worries held flat—66% of adults earning less than $50,000 called rising prices a major concern, compared with 42% of those earning $100,000 or more.8

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Higher-income households generally hold more in stocks and likely benefited most from the AI-driven stock market boom in 2025, leaving them better protected from price increases or a slowing job market.

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• What is a K-shaped recovery for household finances?
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• Why did financial markets view weak economic data as good news?

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1. U.S. Federal Reserve. "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025," Pages 2, 10.
2. U.S. Federal Reserve. "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025," Pages 65-67.
3. U.S. Federal Reserve. "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025," Pages 14, 23.
4. Bureau of Economic Analysis. "GDP (Advance Estimate), 1st Quarter, 2026."
5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Consumer Price Index: 2025 in Review."
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Employment Situation News Release."
7. U.S. Federal Reserve. "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025," Pages 2, 9.
8. U.S. Federal Reserve. "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025," Page 8.

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