Nearly one-fourth of US adults worse off financially

WASHINGTON: Nearly one-fourth of American adults said that they were worse off financially in 2020 compared to a year earlier, reflecting the economic fallout and distress resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, a Federal Reserve survey revealed.

That was up from 14 per cent in 2019 and the highest share since the survey began collecting this information in 2014, according to the Fed's most recent Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, released on Monday.

"This increase occurred broadly across segments of the population, and likely reflects financial distress resulting from the pandemic," the Fed said.

Despite an increase in setbacks due to the pandemic, most Americans were still managing financially at the end of 2020, with three quarters of adults saying they were either "doing okay" financially or "living comfortably", the survey showed.

However, not all groups have fared similarly through the pandemic, and persistent disparities in well-being across education and race remained, the Fed noted.

For example, less than two-thirds of Black and Hispanic adults were doing at least okay financially in 2020, compared with 80 per cent of White adults and 84 per cent of Asian adults.

The gap in financial well-being between White adults and Black and Hispanic adults has grown by 4 percentage points since 2017. (IANS)

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