2025 Wave 1
Exploring key workplace and employment trends, the research provides insights to help employers position their business, their employees, and themselves to achieve greater financial security.
Reflecting the overall financial well-being of businesses in the U.S., this score factors in business health, growth, and outlook/optimism. A higher Index score indicates stronger financial footing and greater optimism—signaling a business environment that’s more capable of growth, retention, and long-term investment.
“Uncertainty is pulling business owners out of a growth mindset and into stability mode. After months of delays and mixed signals, what this market craves is certainty. Clear, sensible moves on tax and trade policy will give main street the confidence to move forward.”
Amy Friedrich
President, Benefits and Protection, Principal®
Businesses report significant declines in the financial health of their business, their local economy, and the U.S. economy—eroding the sense of optimism expressed in years past.
“Despite a drop in business sentiment, small and midsize businesses are holding onto their staff. Such a preference for labor hoarding comes even before the U.S.-China trade truce, indicating that small business layoffs may be even less likely in the months ahead. This should help prevent unemployment from rising significantly this year, which, in turn, lowers recession risk.”
Seema Shah
Chief global strategist, Principal Asset Management®
Despite economic uncertainty, employers remain stable with their staffing strategies.
90%
Businesses that maintained or even increased staff in the past three months
49%
Businesses that increased wages in the past three months
“Late last year, we started loading up on supplies like lumber, drywall, and paints—while they were still at reasonable prices—so we’d have a large backload of inventory at good prices.”
Construction industry respondent with 65 employees in Zanesville, OH
58% Cost of health care
56% Economic inflation
55% Stability of the U.S. economy
51% Cost of offering benefits
50% Potential for a recession, stability of global financial system, and market volatility (three-way tie)
For the first time ever, the cost of health care rose to the top of the concerns list for employers. And, after nearly three years of steady decline, concern over the potential for a recession jumped nine percentage points to 50%.
“Businesses haven’t forgotten the hard lessons of the pandemic era. They’re doing everything they can to preserve staffing, benefits, and wages because they remember just how difficult it was to attract and retain talent as they began to ramp up their growth after the last economic downturn.”
Amy Friedrich
President, Benefits and Protection, Principal®
The Principal Financial Well-Being Index℠ (WBI) Wave 1 (April 14–25, 2025) is recurring research used to track sentiment around repeated financial health measures and timely issues relevant to businesses.
Business owner, decision maker, and leader participants who represent companies with 2–10,000 employees (n=1,000) provide information by completing a 15-minute on line survey. Access to sample is provided by ROI Rocket, a third-party research panel provider.
In 2025, the WBI added a formal index. The index number in the WBI is calculated by taking responses from six perceptual measures evaluating current financial health, financial comparisons year over year, and projections for business and economic outlook. The percentages of respondents who answered positively for each measure are averaged and standardized to a 0–10 scale, with perceptions of business/company, local economic, and U.S. economic growth weighted 60%, 20%, and 20% respectively within their aggregate measure.
