Fed Report: COVID-19 Hits the Poor Hardest

The Fed released its annual report on the economic well-being of US households today, most of which uses data from 2019. However, they also included a bit of data from 2020 reflecting the COVID-19 economy. They report that 13 percent of adults lost their job, but the pain was very definitely not shared equally:

These job losses were most severe among workers with lower incomes. Thirty-nine percent of people working in February with a household income below $40,000 reported a job loss in March.

Unsurprisingly, this is partly because those with lower incomes are unable to work remotely. “Sixty-three percent of workers with at least a bachelor’s degree worked entirely from home. Among workers with a high school degree or less, 20 percent worked entirely from home, as did 27 percent of workers who have completed some college or an associate degree.”

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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