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One month after the end of the longest expansion in American history, many Americans are suddenly finding themselves in enormous financial difficulty, according to Federal Reserve survey released Thursday.
Almost half of Americans who lost a job or had their hours cut as a result of COVID-19 said they are “finding it difficult to get by,” the survey found.
The report makes clear that the poorest and least education Americans are being hurt most by the coronavirus pandemic.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell mentioned a startling statistic from the survey in a speech on Wednesday — that among people who were working in February, almost 40% of those in households making less than $40,000 a year had lost a job in March.
The report shows the disparity even more clearly.
In householders earning between $40,000 and $100,000 per year, 19% of those working in February had lost a job in March. And for households earning above $100,000, a smaller 13% had lost a job.
Read: Fed’s Powell says path ahead is highly uncertain and subject to downside risks
Nine in 10 people surveyed who were furloughed or lost a job said that their employer told them to expect to return, but in general, people were not told specifically when to expect to return to work.
About 77% of workers said their employer did not give them a return date.
The survey found that 64% of Americans who lost a job expected to be able to pay their bills in full in April, compared to 85% of those without employment disruption.
The Fed had finished a survey of households in October looking at 2019, but rushed to do a supplement after the pandemic hit in mid-March. A Fed official said more surveys were planned in coming months but did not know if the data was going to be released publicly.
Even back in October, there were signs of trouble. The 2019 survey found three in ten Americans could not cover three months of expenses using savings or borrowing in case of a job loss.
U.S. equity benchmarks were lower on Thursday as investors questioned the premise that the economy would snap back later in the summer as the lockdown eased in many states. The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.68% was down 22 points to 2,797.
