Poorest Americans Hit Hard by Pandemic Job Losses

(Bloomberg) -- The economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic is falling especially hard on lower-income Americans, a new Federal Reserve survey showed, with almost 40% of those making less than $40,000 a year reporting a job loss in March.

The Fed’s annual report on the economic wellbeing of U.S. households released Thursday, which mainly focuses on conditions at the end of 2019, was supplemented with a survey conducted in early April as the pandemic caused millions to lose their jobs as businesses shuttered across the nation.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, in a speech the day before urging Congress to do more to prevent lasting economic harm from the virus, had highlighted the heavy burden being born by Americans with the most meager resources to ride out the lockdown.

“Thirty-nine percent of people working in February with a household income below $40,000 reported a job loss in March. Another 6% of all adults had their hours reduced or took unpaid leave. Taken together, 19% of all adults reported either losing a job or experiencing a reduction in work hours in March,” according to the report.

The survey, as it has done in previous years, highlighted that many Americans would struggle to pay an unexpected $400 bill without borrowing the money or selling something.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.