Economic anxiety is getting worse for Americans

Voter frustration over affordability fueled Democratic wins in last week's state and local elections, and on top of that, Americans are becoming uneasy about the job market too.

- JARRELL DILLARD AND HADRIANA LOWENKRON

PRICES are weighing on consumers, poll says. Above, shoppers in Palm Desert.

Some 55% of employed Americans say they're concerned about losing their jobs, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Poll for Bloomberg News. That angst comes after a drumbeat of layoff announcements by major employers, including Amazon.com Inc., Target Corp. and Starbucks Corp. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. calculated the most job cut announcements for any October in more than two decades.

It comes layered on top of households’ exasperation over the cost of living. A 62% majority in the Oct. 23-25 poll said the cost of their everyday items had climbed over the last month and nearly half of those people said the increases had been difficult to afford.

President Trump and his aides have responded by putting a positive spin on the economic indicators and deflecting blame elsewhere — tactics President Biden also used, to little avail — along with assuring that things will get better. The risk is that, should the job market and prices fail to shift enough to satisfy voters, Republicans risk losing control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

“The Biden administration really was a cautionary tale about trying to convince voters that the economy is better than their intuitions suggest,” said Tobin Marcus, head of U.S. policy and politics at Wolfe Research and a former advisor to Biden during his vice presidency.

Part of the challenge for Trump and his team is that their economic program “is not squarely aimed at the pain points that are most important” to voters, Marcus said. The president has championed the steepest tariff hikes since before World War II to shrink the trade deficit and encourage a reshoring of manufacturing.