Federal Reserve Survey Shows Black Financial Well-Being Falls to 60% as Layoffs Rise

Black Americans entered 2025 with growing worries about their jobs and ended the year reporting their weakest financial well-being in years, according to new Federal Reserve data that exposes a widening gap beneath the nation's broader economic numbers.

Only 60% of Black adults told the Federal Reserve they were doing okay financially or living comfortably, a five-percentage-point drop from 2024. By comparison, 79% of White adults described themselves that way, while their financial well-being improved from the previous year.

Employment offered another warning sign. As reported by Reuters, the Federal Reserve survey found declining financial well-being among Black adults even as financial conditions remained largely stable for Americans overall.

Job losses show how sharply that divide was felt. Thirteen percent of Black adults reported being laid off during 2025, up from 10% a year earlier and nearly twice the 7% rate recorded across the country.

Job anxiety was spreading beyond Black households as the labor market softened. Across the country, 42% of adults said finding or keeping a job was at least a minor concern, compared with 37% in 2024, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking.

Money pressures reached deeper into Black households even when education might normally provide some protection. Federal Reserve data showed financial well-being deteriorated among Black adults across nearly every education level, including those who had earned college degrees.

Higher education did not erase the decline. Economic Policy Institute researchers analyzing the Federal Reserve findings reported that the share of college-educated Black adults who said they were doing okay or living comfortably fell by nearly seven percentage points during 2025.

Those household struggles unfolded while Wall Street was producing a very different picture of the economy. Stocks climbed to record territory in early August, creating a striking split between rising investment values and families worried about keeping jobs and covering everyday expenses.

Making ends meet was at least a minor concern for more than three-quarters of Black adults surveyed, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of the SHED data. The figure rose roughly eight percentage points from 2024, while concern among White non-Hispanic adults declined slightly from the year before.

Recent employment numbers have added another layer of uncertainty. Employers cut 23,000 jobs in July 2026, while previously reported gains for May and June were revised downward by a combined 103,000 positions, according to federal labor data released Aug. 7.

Behind those percentages are households with less room for another lost paycheck, higher bill or unexpected expense. The Federal Reserve's findings show that while overall financial well-being remained essentially unchanged nationally in 2025, Black adults moved sharply in the opposite direction.