American households had vastly different economic experiences in 2020 as pandemic lockdowns left workers unemployed and many less financially secure, a Federal Reserve report on household economic well-being released Monday showed.
“One clear pattern from the survey is that 2020 financial challenges were mixed and those who entered the year were often left with fewer resources,” according to the Fed’s annual report on the economic well-being of US households.
The differences came when Congress and the White House instituted a tremendous response to spending to keep families financially alive during a difficult time. The data suggests that these programs have helped – but they haven’t completely mitigated the harm to vulnerable households.
The Fed’s online survey, which tracks the experience of adults over the age of 18 in the United States, found that nearly a quarter of respondents said they were financially worse off than a year earlier – up from 14 percent in 2019. As Job Losses Took The Nation Roughly One In Seven Adults Reported To See A layoff at some point in 2020.
“People who kept their jobs during the pandemic generally had stable or improved finances in 2020,” the report said. “However, those who have suffered layoffs and prolonged unemployment have seen their financial situation deteriorate.”
Less than a quarter of those who lost their jobs had returned to their old positions by the end of the year, although more than 80 percent of laid-off workers indicated as of April 2020 that they would expect to get their jobs back, according to the Survey.
The economic costs of state and local lockdowns, while widespread, were nowhere near equal. Overall, the proportion of households that said they were “at least financially okay” remained constant, but the gap between those with a bachelor’s degree reporting financial comfort and those with less than a high school degree did expanded sharply over the past year, rising 44 percentage points in 2020, which happened when the pandemic closed shuttered service providers such as restaurants and shopping malls, costing jobs that required less formal education.
Disparities also played out in a racist manner. Black and Hispanic families are far less likely than white and Asian households to be able to cope financially, the survey found. Less than two-thirds of black and Hispanic adults said they were “at least okay,” compared with 80 percent of white adults and 84 percent of Asian adults.
A large proportion of households took advantage of the government relief in 2020. When Congress expanded eligibility and increased the generosity of benefits for those who have lost their jobs, the report found that 14 percent of adults said they had received unemployment income, up from 2 percent in Year 2019.
The report said that “many aspects of government stimulus measures” “appear to have mitigated the negative financial impact of the pandemic on many families”.