{"id":118994,"date":"2026-10-18T12:03:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=118994"},"modified":"2026-10-18T12:03:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:03:38","slug":"income-uncertainty-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/bgodinspired-news\/bgodinspired-business-news\/income-uncertainty-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Income Uncertainty Hits a Record: 37% Can’t See Next Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>8 Minute, 26 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Here is a simple question. Do you have a good idea what your income will be over the next year?<\/p>\n\n

If you hesitated, you are in large company. In the US Federal Reserve’s newest big survey of family money, 37% of families said no. They did not have a good idea what next year would bring in.<\/p>\n\n

That is the highest share the survey has ever recorded. It has gone up every time the question was asked since 2019. Income uncertainty is now a normal part of life for more than a third of households in one of the richest countries on earth.<\/p>\n\n

And the strangest part of the report is not the 37%. It is what was sitting right next to it.<\/p>\n\n

What the 37% Income Uncertainty Number Actually Measures<\/h2>\n\n

The number comes from the Survey of Consumer Finances. The Federal Reserve runs it every three years and asks families detailed questions about what they earn, own and owe. The newest results, from the 2025 survey, were published in October 2026 in a report called Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Most of the report is about money already earned. But one question looks forward. It asks whether a family has a good idea of its income for the next year. The Fed says it uses that question “as a way to measure families’ uncertainty over their future income.”<\/p>\n\n

So the 37% is not a measure of who is poor. It is not a measure of who lost a job. It is a measure of something softer and harder at the same time: how many people can no longer see ahead.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It is an American survey. But the feeling it measures is not American. Short contracts, gig work, shifting prices and jobs that change shape every few months are true in Lagos, Manila and Nairobi too. If you are reading this from anywhere, the question probably still lands.<\/p>\n\n