While 2025 ended with a 4.4% growth in gross domestic product, fueled by low unemployment, strong consumer and government spending, and business investment, the view of that positive economic news looks much different from many of America’s kitchen tables.
While unemployment is at the federal reserve (Fed) target of 4.4%, job openings continue to fall to 6.5 million, with hires and separations remaining constant at 5.3 million, both continuing to fall in the post-pandemic economy. In this slowing labor market, Americans—who are in part-time jobs trying to make ends meet—are preferring to access those full-time job openings at their highest levels in eight years. The signs of financial stress are everywhere. With 5.7% of the workforce having multiple jobs—the highest level in 25 years—followed by 9.3 million Americans who in November 2025 worked more than one job (a 10% increase from a year earlier), and ending with Americans having two full-time jobs (increasing by 18% during 2025). Aside from working more, American household debt—including record -high credit card debt—is increasing to fill the financial void that a job alone won’t.
In a just-released household debt survey, WalletHub found that 47% of American households can’t handle more debt, 33% expect their household debt to increase during the next 12 months, 45% feel that credit cards own them and 55% believe that they will die with debt. Of the 46% of Americans in debt, 53% are struggling with credit cards, 20% with mortgages, and 11% with student loans. If the financial health of America’s households is not daunting, 44% of respondents said that they think household debt is affecting their health.
With the top 10% of Americans—those earning $275,000 or more—accounting for 45% of all spending, and with the top 20% increasing their spending by 20% since 2020, it matters how confident in the economy the other 80% are, including those struggling with household debt. Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophesy, and for Long Islanders who can’t escape their financial struggles, this is their new reality.
This reality was illustrated in recent a survey from the Siena Research Institute, which found that its Long Island Index of Consumer Sentiment for Nassau and Suffolk County dropped to 63.4 in November, the lowest since 61.2 in June 2023, and nearly 15% lower than the 72.9 in November 2024. Results below 76 indicate that those consumers who are pessimistic about their financial future are greater than those who are optimistic This is troubling because consumerism is 70% of all economic activity, and because of that outsized impact it matters for the regional economy how Long Islanders feel about their household finances and financial future.
With 70% of Long Islanders indicating that the rising costs of groceries, rents, and home energy were seriously impacting their finances, the pessimism that Long Islanders feel about their financial future is unmistakable. The concern for Long Island‘s small businesses is that pessimistic consumers are reluctant to spend.
No doubt that rising costs and increasing household debt has resulted in a widening gap between those who have persevered during the past five years and those who have struggled. This imbalance may be with us for foreseeable future proving that all economics is local.
Martin Cantor is director of the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy and former Suffolk County economic development commissioner. He can be reached at [email protected].
Opinion
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