New analysis of Federal Reserve data shows Black adults’ financial well-being has declined to its lowest level in a decade, with college graduates seeing some of the steepest setbacks.
Black American adults are continuing to suffer in the Trump economy, as data shows the economic instability among Black households is worsening more than a year into the Trump-Vance administration.
According to a new report published by the Economic Policy Institute, Black Americans say they are in the worst financial position in a decade. The think tank cites an analysis of a Federal Reserve Board of Governors survey that tracks Americans’ economic sentiment. The latest Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking shows an increase in the number of Black adults who worry about finding or keeping a job, and a decrease in those who say they are doing okay or living comfortably.
“The latest SHED survey also shows that the harm caused by the administration’s economic chaos has not affected all people equally,” says the report authored by Ismael Cid-Martinez, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE).
“Structural inequities embedded in the U.S. economy and labor market have historically left communities of color disproportionately vulnerable to economic insecurity and poverty, and the Federal Reserve’s survey shows that this trend is continuing,” writes Cid-Martinez. “While the overall financial well-being of most adults held steady in 2025, the financial well-being of Black adults declined.”
As theGrio has reported extensively, Black unemployment has continued to skyrocket since Trump returned to the White House as a result of the president’s cuts to the federal workforce and other funding cuts, as well as the residual effects of his tariffs on global imports that have squeezed businesses, including Black-owned small businesses.
The EPI analysis finds that Black workers are more likely to experience layoffs, resulting in a higher share of Black adults and their families with “increased fear of finding or keeping a job in 2025.”
Sixty percent of Black adults in 2025 said they are doing okay or living comfortably, a decline from 65% in 2024. By contrast, 79% of white adults in 2025 said the same. The decline in Black adults who say they are living comfortably is at its lowest in 10 years. In 2015, 61% of Black adults said they were doing okay or living comfortably.
What’s more, the EPI report highlights that the economic pain on Black adults is spread across educational backgrounds, with nearly all Black adults with varying levels of education experiencing a deterioration of their financial position last year. In fact, Black adults with a college education worsened the most. Those with a bachelor’s degree saw the steepest decline (7%), compared to those with a “some college” education (4.7%), a high school diploma or GED (4.1%), and those with no high school diploma (1%).
As a result of employment uncertainty, Black adults are also significantly more likely to report major concerns about making ends meet, at 77.5%, up from 69% in 2024. White Americans’ concerns decreased from 56.2% to 55.3%.
The disproportionate economic harm to Black adults comes with a bit of unfortunate irony, as most of them did not vote for the policies that are currently leaving a greater share of them out of work or with fewer pathways to improve their lives. While 55% of white Americans and 48% of Hispanics cast their ballot for Trump in the 2024 presidential election, only 13% of Black Americans voted for him—83% of them instead cast their ballot for Trump’s opponent, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.