Americans more worried about job market, rising prices,

utility bills under Trump

By America-Today October 21, 2025

Washington — Americans are growing increasingly concerned about their

ability to find a good job under President Donald Trump, an Associated

Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll finds, in what is a potential

warning sign for Republicans as a promised economic boom has given way

to hiring freezes and elevated inflation.

High prices for groceries, housing and health care persist as a fear for

many households, while rising electricity bills and the cost of gas at the

pump are also sources of anxiety, according to the survey.

Some 47% of U.S. adults are “not very" or “not at all confident” they could

find a good job if they wanted to, an increase from 37% when the question

was last asked in October 2023.

Electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for 36% of U.S. adults at a

time when the expected build-out of data centers for artificial intelligence

could further tax the power grid. Just more than one-half said the cost of

groceries are a “major” source of financial stress, about 4 in 10 said the

cost of housing and health care were a serious strain and about one-third

said they were feeling high stress about gasoline prices.