A new survey shows that under the Trump administration, Black adults’ financial well-being continues to deteriorate disproportionately.
By Angela Wilson
(Source: The Root)
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.
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.