COVID-19 Pandemic Pinches Finances of America’s Lower- and Middle-Income Families
Nearly one-in-five middle-income families report receiving unemployment benefits in 2020.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Nearly one-in-five middle-income families report receiving unemployment benefits in 2020.
About half of U.S. adults who are currently unemployed and are looking for a job are pessimistic about their prospects for future employment.
Here’s how the COVID-19 recession is affecting labor force participation and unemployment among American workers a year after its onset.
The drop in employment in three months of the COVID-19 recession is more than double the drop effected by the Great Recession over two years.
The unemployment rate for U.S. Hispanics hit 4.7% in the second quarter of 2017. However, U.S. Latinos have not fully recovered from the Great Recession.
From 1991 to 2010, the middle class expands in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, but, as in the United States, shrinks in Germany, Italy and Spain
The share of Americans who live in middle-income households has held steady since 2010 – a flat trend that might actually be good news.
Hispanics will account for three-quarters of the growth in the nation’s labor force from 2010 to 2020, according to new projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). One major reason is that the Hispanic population is growing rapidly due to births and immigration. At the same time, the aging of the non-Hispanic white population is expected to reduce their numbers in the labor force.
During the sluggish two-year recovery from the Great Recession, men have gained 768,000 jobs while women have lost 218,000 jobs. This new gender gap in employment trends represents a sharp turnabout from the recession itself, when men lost more than twice as many jobs as women.
In the year following the end of the Great Recession in June 2009, foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs while native-born workers lost 1.2 million. As a result, the unemployment rate fell for immigrants while it rose for the native born.
1615 L St. NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
USA
(+1) 202-419-4300 | Main
(+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax
(+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries
ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
© 2024 Pew Research Center