Household income (HHI), spending and bill payment impacts
Household finances mixed in the face of economic uncertainty
In Q2 2025, Americans reported their household incomes remained consistent from the previous quarter, with 83% reporting income rose or stayed the same in the last three months. Nearly all (90%) expected their incomes to increase or stay the same in the next 12 months. Job security appeared strong as well. Only 34% of consumers reported jobs as a top-three financial concern, down slightly from the previous quarter and Q2 2024.
However, 37% of consumers reported household finances were worse than planned in Q2 2025. This was significantly higher (six percentage points) than the previous quarter but lower (39%) than a year ago. Optimism about household finances for the next 12 months appeared to be clouded by inflation. Most (81%) reported it as one of their top three financial concerns despite the Consumer Price Index increasing a modest 0.1% in May 2025 from the previous month and 2.4% over the last year.1 Nearly two-thirds (62%) of US consumers were extremely or very concerned about the current rate of inflation, the same as Q2 2024. Feeding into their inflation fears, 67% of consumers indicated current or potential tariffs could lead to
higher product prices that would impact them personally.Uncertainty is the watchword as fears of a recession reemerged and jumped to a top-three financial concern for 52% of consumers, rising nine percentage points over Q1 2025 to the highest point in two years. To illustrate, when asked to identify their top financial concern for the next 12 months, respondent comments noted the increase in inflation due to tariffs and real possibility of a recession affecting jobs.
1 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Summary