Black people in America did worse economically in 2025 than at any time since the Federal Reserve began its financial wellbeing survey in 2013, according to some measures published Wednesday.

More notable than the depressed financial situation of Black respondents is the gap between Black people and, in some cases, every other racial and ethnic group recorded. The Federal Reserve’s report, Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025, is the latest data set revealing the ways and extent Black Americans suffered tangible economic harm under the first year of President Donald Trump’s second presidential term, wherein the president took myriad steps to hack away at racial progress at the federal level as soon as returning to office. And as the U.S. residents are generally experiencing actual wage declines, the sharp jump in inflation fueled by the war in Iran, and a sluggish job market which saw the unemployment rate climb before flattening more recently, Wednesday’s Fed report exposes how some groups are bearing the brunt of Trump’s economic policy choices, while others are thriving.

The Fed’s economic well-being findings draw on a survey of nearly 13,000 U.S. adults taken in the fourth quarter of 2025. It asks questions about job loss and employment situation, emergency savings, and concerns about price increases, as well as more general survey questions about one’s perceived financial stability. Black people recorded the largest decline in financial stability measures in nearly every category compared to Asian, Hispanic and white respondents.

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Trump’s gutting of more than 300,000 federal jobs likely had a disproportionate impact on Black people, who were overrepresented in the federal workforce. Trump’s dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives included the abolition of federal programs and decrees pressuring private business to follow suit. An analysis from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance found more than half of the companies listed on the S&P 100 made material changes to their DEI policies to avoid legal risk. Fewer companies reported workforce demographics at all, the study found. Taken together, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies declared in January Black people were facing a recession. This was even before a series of unimaginable Supreme Court decisions and subsequent state actions that have laid the foundation for the decimation of Black political power across the south and nationally.