About 60M households expecting income loss

Nearly 60 million Americans expect someone in their household will lose a job or take a pay cut in the next four weeks, survey results from the U.S. Census Bureau show.

Minority households in particular are continuing to struggle economically from the pandemic, according to the survey conducted from Sept. 16-28.

The Census Bureau’s latest edition of the Household Pulse Survey found more than 27 percent of Americans in their prime working years — those age 25 to 54 — anticipate income losses affecting themselves or someone they live with during October.

The latest review showed a slight reduction in the number of Americans worried about potential income losses. During the prior survey period conducted Sept. 2-14, 62.3 million people were concerned.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said this week that more fiscal support was urgently needed to support the U.S. economic recovery.

“Whatever Congress can do with the executive branch — come together aggressively to put money in the hands of people who have lost their jobs and to support small businesses so that we don’t have this continuing wave of bankruptcies across the economy — it’s just vital that they move quickly,” Kashkari said in an interview with CNBC.

Kashkari’s comments were similar to those of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell this week in which he made one of his strongest appeals to date on the need for lawmakers to do more.

The latest census survey says about 32 percent of Americans found paying for typical household expenses to be “somewhat” or “very” difficult.