‘Sufficient for necessities, insufficient for luxuries’: The challenging job market for entry-level positions impacts Gen Z and less affluent Americans, according to JPMorgan's research.

The analysis, which leverages deidentified financial data from Chase customers, suggests that the period of relying on pandemic-era excess cash liquidity is now “in the rearview mirror,” and many consumers are facing a spending season where budgets are “tempered by tepid income growth.” For consumers who are “relatively disadvantaged by high housing costs and hold less stock market wealth”—a group that disproportionately includes younger and lower-income individuals—they may have “just enough to spend, but not enough to splurge” this year.

These findings come at the end of a year when voter anger about the cost of living unseated Democrats from the White House and installed President Donald Trump for a second, non-consecutive term, only to see voters back Democrats across the board in offyear elections. Many of the benefactors, including New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, stressed the “affordability” problem that many are facing, while Trump’s approval ratings on the economy have plummeted.

Younger generations have shouldered the majority of what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell famously described as a “low-hire, low-fire” job market, which appears quite stagnant. “Kids coming out of college and younger people, minorities, are having a hard time finding jobs,” Powell told reporters in September. A few weeks onward, Goldman Sachs economists warned suggested this “jobless growth” could evolve into a lasting characteristic of the economic landscape. Numerous financial experts have adopted a phrase from The Biden administration's tenure that matches JPMorgan's discoveries: “the K-shaped economy,”, featuring distinct trajectories for affluent and less wealthy individuals.

Certainly, although JPMorgan's analysis doesn't delve into the political landscape or the economic policies anticipated for 2025, it portrays a fragile economic equilibrium, marked by challenges including stagnant real earnings and inadequate asset building within significant population segments.

Stagnant real earnings are comparable to a recessionary phase.

The expansion of median real income has maintained a sluggish trajectory for numerous months, with the figure for prime-age workers (between 25 and 54 years old) in October 2025 reaching merely 1.6% when adjusted for inflation. This persistent, subdued rate is comparable to levels seen during the challenging employment conditions of the early 2010s, a time when the jobless rate averaged 7%. The institute notes that this is the case, “when the unemployment rate was still elevated from the Great Recession,”, even though the present unemployment rate is considerably below that of that era, standing at 4.3%.

Although income expansion is holding steady near its pre-pandemic rate, the accelerated trend of rising consumer costs signifies minimal advancements in actual spending capacity.

This widespread lack of progress is presenting significant difficulties for various age groups. Individuals in their mid-twenties “continue to underperform the typical early career growth pattern” are experiencing income increases that lag behind historical patterns for younger employees. Typically, those earlier in their careers depend on changing jobs to quickly move up the professional ladder. Nevertheless, the present reduction in recruitment is impeding this usual swift progression of earnings.

A decline in total earnings expansion is also affecting older age groups. Individuals between 50 and 54 years old are currently seeing a decrease in their real income when compared year-over-year. Given that older employees typically encounter more gradual yearly increases, a combination of a weakening job market and rising inflation can more readily push their spending power into a deficit. A negative real growth rate for older employees may necessitate difficult changes, especially for those with less accumulated wealth who haven't profited from extended periods of robust appreciation in property and equity values.

Level account totals provide minimal reserve

The median inflation-adjusted cash holdings for families have shown no change since the beginning of 2024, maintaining their level through the majority of 2025. This lack of movement contrasts with patterns observed before the pandemic, during which real balances typically saw consistent increases of slightly more than 6% annually as the population aged. Had balances continued to expand at that past pace from 2020 onward, they would have increased by 40% in October compared to 2019 levels; however, they have only risen by 23%.

This stagnant expansion suggests that families aren't building up extra funds in their transactional and savings accounts.

While affluent families have experienced minor decreases in their financial institution holdings (a mere 2% negative in October 2025), possibly because of moving funds to more lucrative accounts or investment firms, families with lower incomes resumed positive year-over-year growth in their financial institution balances as of September 2024. Notwithstanding these alterations in saving approaches, the estimation of overall monetary assets—encompassing investment movements—indicates that expansion has been favorable across all income brackets for a minimum of the past twelve months.

Going into the end of the year, consumers with constrained budgets may look to stock market gains to augment spending. However, the report cautions that these stock market gains are “highly unequally distributed,” leaving younger and lower-income groups with less financial cushion as they navigate stagnant real purchasing power.

For this story,  Coins2Day  generative AI assisted in creating the initial draft, which an editor then reviewed for accuracy prior to publication.