Almost half of Americans don’t have three months of emergency savings, per Fed survey data.
Some workers are saving specifically for the possibility of a layoff.
Job searches are taking longer, and some Americans’ savings aren’t keeping up.
At one point, during Michele Wilke’s post-layoff job search, she had less than $2,000 in her bank account — and was worried about being evicted from her studio apartment in Chicago.
To stay afloat, Wilke launched a GoFundMe that raised nearly $3,000 and borrowed money from friends, eventually accumulating more than $20,000 in personal debt. Last September, after eight months of searching, she landed a catering sales manager role.
“My goal is to make some money and pay off my debt,” said Wilke, who’s in her 60s. “I want a fresh start.”
Wilke’s experience underscores how quickly a prolonged job search can unravel someone’s finances — especially for workers without much savings to fall back on. Nearly half of Americans don’t have three months’ worth of expenses set aside in an emergency or “rainy day” fund, according to the latest Federal Reserve survey data from 2024.
Those facing joblessness are in an ever-more precarious position; the typical unemployment stint is getting longer as US companies are hiring at one of the lowest rates since 2013. At the same time — though inflation has eased — costs for housing, food, and other essentials are squeezing household budgets.
Over the past year, I’ve spoken with dozens of laid-off workers. Many were surprised not just by the layoffs themselves, but by how difficult the job market they entered proved to be. Some have since felt significant financial strain, including several who had built emergency savings.
“Even with a job, it’ll take a lot to climb out of my financial hole,” Wilke said.
Business Insider is speaking with workers who’ve found themselves at a corporate crossroads — whether due to a layoff, resignation, job search, or shifting workplace expectations.
Share your story by filling out this form, contacting this reporter via email at [email protected], or via Signal at jzinkula.29.
Many Americans aren’t prepared financially for unemployment
As unemployment spells lengthen, the financial risks of a prolonged job search are rising for many Americans.
The median unemployment duration for US job seekers was over 11 weeks (nearly three months) as of January, up from as low as eight weeks in 2022. Some job seekers are having an even harder time: As of January, a quarter of unemployed Americans had been looking for work for 27 weeks (nearly seven months) or more, up from below 18% in 2023.
Story continues
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy dashboard
US consumer inflation, labour expectations improve, Fed survey shows
Maria Eloisa Capurro / Bloomberg
9 February 2026 1 min read
US consumer expectations for inflation and the job market improved slightly in January, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey.
(Feb 10): US consumer expectations for inflation and the job market improved slightly in January, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey.
Households saw prices rising 3.1% over the next year, down from 3.4% in December, according to the median response in results of the New York Fed’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations, released Monday. The probability consumers assigned to losing a job also edged down, while their perceived chances of being able to find a new one within three months improved to around 46%.
Signs of a stabilising labour market paved the way for Fed officials to hold interest rates steady last month, after three consecutive rate cuts to close out 2025. Policymakers have said those cuts will support the labour market while also leaving rates high enough to keep putting downward pressure on inflation, which remains above the US central bank’s 2% target.
The New York Fed survey results follow a Feb 5 Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing job openings fell in December to the lowest level since 2020, while layoffs edged up. The BLS will publish its monthly employment report for January, briefly delayed by last week’s government shutdown, on Wednesday.
Households’ views of their finances over the next year were about evenly split among those who perceive their situation improving and those who believe it will worsen. Expectations for inflation three and five years ahead were both unchanged at 3%.
Uploaded by Chng Shear Lane
See Also:
Click here to stay updated with the Latest Business & Investment News in Singapore
Read more stories about where the money flows, and analysis of the biggest market stories from Singapore and around the World
Get in-depth insights from our expert contributors, and dive into financial and economic trends
Follow the market issue situation with our daily updates
Or want more Lifestyle and Passion stories? Click here
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy dashboard
US job openings drop to lowest since 2020, layoffs edge up
Mark Niquette & Jarrell Dillard / Bloomberg
5 February 2026 2 min read
US job openings unexpectedly fell in December to the lowest level since 2020 and layoffs edged up, adding to evidence of sluggish demand for workers.
(Feb 6): US job openings unexpectedly fell in December to the lowest level since 2020 and layoffs edged up, adding to evidence of sluggish demand for workers.
Available positions decreased to 6.54 million from a downwardly revised 6.93 million reading in November, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out on Thursday. The latest figure was below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The pullback in openings was driven by professional and business services, as well as retail trade. The rise in layoffs reflected more cuts in transportation and warehousing. The number of hires also climbed but remained subdued.
The slide in vacancies indicates companies continue to be selective about their hiring tempo as they assess the size of their labour forces and economic activity. With the number of unemployed slightly exceeding openings, the figures also reinforce the Federal Reserve’s view that wage growth is not a source of inflationary pressures.
The JOLTS report showed the number of vacancies per unemployed worker, a ratio Fed officials watch closely as a proxy of the balance between labour demand and supply, held at 0.9 in December. At its peak in 2022, the ratio was two to one.
The Fed left interest rates unchanged during their January meeting given solid economic growth and signs of stabilisation in the labour market. But chair Jerome Powell signalled that further weakening in the job market could prompt additional rate cuts.
Recent jobless claims data, which rose last week amid frigid weather, have shown few signs of widespread layoffs despite some high-profile announcements of workforce cuts. Amazon.com Inc and United Parcel Service Inc have recently laid out additional plans to reduce headcount on top of previous announcements in 2025.
Those reductions contributed to more than a doubling in the number of US announced job cuts in January from a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Hiring intentions also softened, the outplacement firm’s data showed earlier on Thursday.
Consumer confidence surveys have also shown anxiety about the job market is building. The highest share of consumers since February 2021 said that jobs were currently hard to get, data from the Conference Board showed last month.
According to the JOLTS report, the so-called quits rate, which measures the percentage of people voluntarily leaving their jobs each month, was unchanged near the lowest since the pandemic.
Story continues
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy dashboard
US stocks lose steam after mixed bag of jobs numbers
Rita Nazareth // Bloomberg
16 December 2025 10 min read
In this article:
^GSPC
The S&P 500 fell for a third straight day. Treasury yields edged mildly down as swaps implied only 20% odds of a January Fed cut.
US(Dec 17): Signs the US jobs market is sluggish, but not quickly deteriorating saw traders refraining from boosting bets on near-term Federal Reserve rate cuts, with stocks falling and bonds wavering.
A noisy reading reflecting some of the impacts of the longest government shutdown in US history was received by traders with caution. The S&P 500 fell for a third straight day. Treasury yields edged mildly down as swaps implied only 20% odds of a January Fed cut. A reduction is fully priced in by mid-2026.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 64,000 in November after declining 105,000 in October amid a contraction in federal employment. The jobless rate rose to 4.6% last month, continuing its upward climb as many out-of-work Americans struggled to land new jobs.
“The report contains enough softness to justify prior rate cuts, but it offers little support for significantly deeper easing ahead,” said Kevin O’Neil at Brandywine Global.
The Fed is unlikely to put much weight on the data given the disruptions, according to Kay Haigh at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
“The report on December’s employment data, released in early January ahead of the next meeting, will likely be a much more meaningful indicator for the Fed,” Haigh noted.
While the jobs reading was a “gift” to those looking for the Fed to follow a dovish path in 2026, there’s no indication the broader economy has been derailed, noted Ellen Zentner at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
Data showed US retail sales were little changed in October as solid spending in several categories was muted by a decline at motor vehicle dealers.
The S&P 500 lost 0.2% despite gains in most big techs. The yield on 10-year Treasuries dropped two basis points to 4.15%. The dollar was little changed. West Texas Intermediate oil sank to around US$55 a barrel.
At Glenmede, Jason Pride said investors should avoid overly extrapolating the signals from the “exceptionally noisy employment report.”
“Today’s report likely strengthens the case for further easing on the margin,” he said. “However, after delivering three rate cuts at the end of 2025, it is likely that the Fed will take a few months to digest incoming data before deciding on its next move.”
Today’s jobs report does not change the thinking for Fed officials at large, according to Oscar Munoz and Gennadiy Goldberg at TD Securities.
“In all likelihood, the Fed will look through the October/November jobs data and wait to make a more informed assessment based on a more reliable December report,” they said.
Story continues
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy dashboard
US stocks slide as bleak jobs spur rally in bonds
Rita Nazareth / Bloomberg
6 November 2025 9 min read
Strong evidence of a cooling labour market rippled through Wall Street, spurring a rally in bonds on bets the Federal Reserve will cut rates.
(Nov 6): Strong evidence of a cooling labour market rippled through Wall Street, spurring a rally in bonds on bets the Federal Reserve (Fed) will cut rates. Those wagers weren’t enough to lift stocks as megacaps sold off.
With the scarcity of data caused by the federal shutdown, investors have turned to private readings such as the Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc report showing companies announced the most job cuts for any October in over 20 years. Following the numbers, money markets now imply an about 60% chance of a quarter-point rate reduction next month.
“We are sticking to our view that the Fed will deliver a follow-up 25 basis-point cut in December because restrictive Fed policy can worsen the already fragile employment backdrop,” said Elias Haddad at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
While bets on Fed cuts have powered a surge in equities alongside the artificial-intelligence boom, concerns over a stretched market surfaced. Technical indicators are increasingly flagging reasons for caution, while worries about a narrowing cohort of stocks driving the gains have become louder.
Traders are also keeping a close eye on a slate of policymakers slated to speak on Thursday. Fed Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee told CNBC that a lack of inflation data during the shutdown makes him more uneasy about continuing rate cuts.
The S&P 500 fell about 1%. The Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.5%. Tesla Inc led losses in megacaps. Qualcomm Inc became the latest chipmaker to deliver an upbeat forecast and still leave investors underwhelmed.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries slid seven basis points to 4.09%. A dollar gauge fell 0.1%. Bitcoin lost 1.5%.
Companies announced 153,074 job cuts last month, almost triple the number during the same month last year and driven by the technology and warehousing sectors. It’s the most for any October since 2003, when the advent of cellphones was similarly disruptive, said Andy Challenger, the company’s chief revenue officer.
Meantime, Revelio Labs data showed the US lost 9,100 nonfarm jobs in October after gaining 33,000 the month prior.
“If anything, the data reinforces the difficulty in making a case that hiring is re-accelerating,” said Vail Hartman at BMO Capital Markets. “When combined with this morning’s Challenger data, we remain sceptical of the argument that the labour market is staging a re-acceleration into year-end.”
Don Rissmiller at Strategas says the US labour market is not collapsing, but it does not look robust to shocks either.
Story continues
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy dashboard
US adds 130,000 jobs and unemployment falls after tepid 2025
Augusta Saraiva / Bloomberg
11 February 2026 4 min read
US payrolls rose in January by the most in more than a year and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, suggesting the labour market continued to stabilise at the start of 2026.
(Feb 11): US payrolls rose in January by the most in more than a year and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, suggesting the labour market continued to stabilise at the start of 2026.
Employers added 130,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate declined to 4.3%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data out on Wednesday. That followed revisions to the prior year, which showed a marked slowdown in hiring. Job gains averaged just 15,000 a month last year, down from the initially reported 49,000 pace.
The report suggests the labour market is finding its footing after a year marked by rising unemployment and minimal hiring. While economists expect hiring to remain generally sluggish in 2026, more clarity around the impact of President Donald Trump’s economic policies and lower borrowing costs could encourage some employers to boost headcount.
The January data reinforces Federal Reserve officials’ inclination to keep interest rates on hold for now. Traders pushed out their timeline for the next rate cut to July from June.
In leaving rates unchanged last month, chair Jerome Powell cited signs of steadying in the job market.
“Coming off of a hiring recession recession in 2025, this is welcome news,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “I think Fed chair Powell was right — the labour market appears to be stabilising.”
Metric
Actual
Median estimate
Change in payrolls (MoM)
+130k
+65k
Unemployment rate
4.3%
4.4%
Average hourly earnings (MoM)
+0.4%
+0.3%
With the release of each January employment report, BLS benchmarks payrolls to a more accurate but less timely series called the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. That data is based on state unemployment insurance tax records and covers most US jobs.
That adjustment showed job growth was nearly 900,000 lower in the 12 months through March 2025 than initially reported. The figure roughly aligned with what the BLS’s preliminary estimate suggested.
The pickup in January hiring was led by healthcare, which accounted for the majority of job growth in 2025. Construction and professional and business services also added jobs, while manufacturing saw the first monthly gain in employment in more than a year. Federal government payrolls continued to decline.
Though layoffs remain generally constrained, there’s been a wave of job-cut announcements by companies like Amazon.com Inc to United Parcel Service Inc in recent weeks. And heading into this year, job openings across the economy dropped to the lowest level since 2020.
Story continues
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy dashboard
Tough job market has people using dating apps to get interviews
Georgia Hall & Jeff Green / Bloomberg
29 December 2025 6 min read
Job seekers are turning dating apps into job opportunities as traditional employment platforms offer fewer viable openings.
(Dec 29): Most people use dating apps to find love. Tiffany Chau used one to hunt for a summer internship.
This fall, the 20-year-old junior at California College of the Arts tailored her Hinge profile to connect with people who could offer job referrals or interviews. One match brought her to a Halloween party, where she networked in hopes of landing a product-design internship for the summer. While there, she got some tips from someone who had recently interviewed at Accenture. As for the connection with her date? Not so much.
“I feel like my approach to the dating apps is it being another networking platform like everything else, like Instagram or LinkedIn,” Chau said.
Chau is among a cadre of workers who are using dating apps to boost their job searches. They’re recognising that the online job hunt is broken as unemployed workers flood the system, AI screens out resumes and many job matching programs are overwhelmed. Automation has squeezed human contact out of hiring, which has pushed applicants to seek any path to a live hiring manager, no matter the means.
The overall US unemployment rate continued to climb throughout 2025, reaching 4.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while the number of unemployed high school graduates held steady at about 4.4% in November, the rate for workers with a bachelor’s degree rose to 2.9% from 2.5% a year ago.
About a third of dating app users said they had sought matches for job hook-ups, according to a ResumeBuilder.com survey of about 2,200 US dating site customers in October. Two-thirds targeted potential paramours who worked at a desirable employer. Three-quarters said they matched with people working in roles they wanted.
The idea isn’t just for Gen Z digital natives. Almost half of the job-hunting cupids reported incomes of more than US$200,000 ($256,983), suggesting they are more experienced, senior employees, said Stacie Haller, ResumeBuilder.com’s chief career adviser.
“People are doing it to expand their networks, make connections, because the best way to get a job today is who you know,” she said. “Networking is the only way people are rising above the horror show that the job search is today.”
Alex Xiao is an 18-year-old first-year student at the University of California at Berkeley majoring in analytics, and a director at Ditto AI, a dating app start-up exclusively for college students. He said he’s had multiple matches who wanted job help, not a date.
Story continues
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy dashboard
US jobless claims top all estimates in a week affected by weather
Julia Fanzeres / Bloomberg
5 February 2026 2 min read
In this article:
UPS
AMZN
Applications for US unemployment benefits rose by more than forecast last week, when severe winter weather curtailed business activity.
(Feb 5): Applications for US unemployment benefits rose by more than forecast last week, when severe winter weather curtailed business activity.
Initial claims increased by 22,000 to 231,000 in the final week on January, according to Labor Department data released on Thursday. Claims exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, increased to 1.84 million in the previous week.
Business disruptions tied to severe winter weather may have prompted more Americans to seek unemployment assistance. Up until last week, the initial claims figures showed companies were largely reluctant to reduce headcount amid solid economic growth.
At the same time, employers are also taking on fewer workers. Recent job-cut announcements by United Parcel Service Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Dow Inc could fuel further consumer anxiety about the labour market.
Those reductions contributed to more than a doubling in the number of US announced job cuts in January from a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Hiring intentions also softened, the outplacement firm’s data showed earlier on Thursday. Companies added fewer jobs in January than expected, based on ADP Research data out Wednesday.
The four-week moving average of new applications, which helps smooth out the volatility in the data that is typical during weather events, rose to 212,250 last week.
A partial government shutdown delayed January payrolls and unemployment data to Feb 11, which was previously scheduled for Friday. December job openings figures will be issued later on Thursday.
Before adjusting for seasonal factors, initial claims also rose last week. Pennsylvania, New York and Missouri were among states that posted the largest weekly increases.
Uploaded by Felyx Teoh
See Also:
Click here to stay updated with the Latest Business & Investment News in Singapore
Read more stories about where the money flows, and analysis of the biggest market stories from Singapore and around the World
Get in-depth insights from our expert contributors, and dive into financial and economic trends
Follow the market issue situation with our daily updates
Or want more Lifestyle and Passion stories? Click here