If you feel less secure about your job than you did a year ago, the Federal Reserve just confirmed you are far from alone in that growing unease. The central bank’s latest annual survey of American households, released on May 13, 2026, reveals rising workplace anxiety spreading across income brackets and age groups.The share of adults who said they worried about finding or keeping a job climbed to 42%, up five percentage points from 37% in 2024, according to the Fed’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Roughly nine out of every 10 respondents also flagged price increases as a financial concern, keeping inflation at the top of the worry list for households. The combination of sticky prices and a cooling labor market is creating a double squeeze that touches household budgets, career decisions, and long-term financial planning alike.Fed survey reveals 42% of adults now flag “finding or keeping work” as a concernThe Fed’s 2025 SHED survey polled 12,934 adults in October 2025. It found that employment anxiety has spread well beyond workers in traditionally unstable industries: 18% of all adults described finding or keeping a job as a major concern, up from 14% the previous year, the Federal Reserve Board reported.As we work to support a strong and vibrant economy, it’s critical for the Federal Reserve to understand the economic experiences of families and communities.Layoffs edged higher as well, with 7% of all adults reporting they had been laid off in the prior 12 months, up from 6% in 2024. Voluntary quits dipped slightly to 8%, suggesting fewer workers felt confident enough to leave their positions for new opportunities amid a hiring environment the Fed characterized as solid but softening.Gallup’s Q4 2025 workforce survey reinforced that finding, showing that only 28% of U.S. workers believed it was a good time to find a quality job, down from nearly 70% in mid-2022 and just under half in late 2024. Gallup described the 42-point decline since mid-2022 as the largest collapse in job-market confidence the firm has recorded in the past four years.Young adults face the steepest employment barriers in a tightening marketWorkers under 30 are absorbing a disproportionate share of the labor market’s slowdown, with the SHED data showing that 15% of adults in that age group were not working because they could not find employment. That figure rose from 13% in 2024 and 11% in 2023, marking a steady erosion in entry-level job availability over three consecutive years, the Fed Communities summary noted. Nearly 49% of all adults under 30 were living with a parent in 2025, up six percentage points since 2022 and 12 points from 2019, the Fed reported. More Layoffs:E-commerce giant shuts down office as layoffs riseOracle signals massive AI opportunity as layoffs hitAI won’t trigger mass layoffs yet, Fed saysThat trend tracks closely with the tightening labor market, as fewer young workers can afford to live independently when full-time positions remain scarce, and wages lag behind housing costs. Rising student loan obligations and elevated rents in major metro areas have compounded the pressure, pushing more young adults to delay milestones like homeownership and household formation.Separate research from Gallup found that only 43% of Americans aged 15 to 34 believed it was a good time to find a job locally in 2025, standing 21 percentage points below adults aged 55 and older, the firm reported. That represented the widest generational gap in job-market optimism of any country the polling firm surveyed in its global research across more than 141 nations.
Young adults are facing the toughest job market in years as hiring slows, housing costs rise, and financial independence slips further away.skynesher/Getty Images
Inflation remains the top financial concern despite easing in severityWhile job anxiety surged, the SHED data showed a modest easing on the inflation front, though prices remained the single most-cited financial worry among American adults. The share calling inflation a major concern dipped to 53% from 56% in 2024, and the share who changed spending habits because of higher prices slipped to 77% from 79%, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking.58% of adults said inflation over the prior year had worsened their financial situation, declining from 60% in 2024 and 65% in 2023, InvestmentNews noted. Financial stability holds on the surface, but cracks are deepening underneathThe headline measure of household financial health appeared stable, with 73% of adults saying they were either doing okay or living comfortably in 2025. That share matched 2024 but remained below the pre-pandemic level of 75% and well short of the 78% peak recorded in 2021, according to the Fed’s report.Only 26% of respondents rated the national economy as good or excellent, down from 29% in 2024 and a stark decline from the 50% who offered that assessment in 2019, before the pandemic reshaped economic expectations. The gap between how Americans rate their own finances (73%) and their view of the national economy (26%) is notably wide, and consumer views on the national economy remained much more pessimistic than before the pandemic, according to the Fed.A low-hire, low-fire labor market leaves millions of workers feeling trappedEconomists have described the current labor market as a low-hire, low-fire environment, where layoffs remain historically contained, but companies have pulled back sharply from hiring new workers. The result is a job market that looks stable in aggregate unemployment figures but feels increasingly stagnant for anyone trying to advance, switch careers, or enter the workforce.Close to half of surveyed workers, 43%, reported staying in their current role primarily because leaving would be too difficult or costly, with 69% of that group citing an inability to afford losing their pay or benefits, Gallup’s workforce research found. For workers weighing whether to stay or search, the Fed and Gallup data show a market that has cooled in real terms. Related: Fidelity sounds the alarm on a growing job crisis