downward mobility
Falling economic status
Downward mobility is movement to a lower social or economic position than one previously held or than one's parents achieved.
The opposite of upward mobility, it describes declining fortunes across a lifetime or between generations: The collapse of manufacturing led to downward mobility for many working-class families.
The term often carries anxiety about lost status or broken promises of prosperity.
- declineDecrease or refuse
- fallingMoving downward freely
- slippingLosing footing unintentionally
- povertySevere lack of resources
- struggleLabored effort against resistance
layoff · pink slip · foreclosure · debt · underwater mortgage · bankruptcy · unemployment · downgrade · setback · hardship · ladder · class · status · social ladder · precarious · instability · gig economy · eviction
- social classupper class, middle class, lower class, working class, social class
- social hierarchycaste system, caste, class, class system, ranks
- social mobilityeconomic ladder, social ladder, rags to riches, social climbing, career ladder
- vertical mobilitysocial climbing, moving up
- poverty factorsdeprivation, hardship, low income, low wages, joblessness
- inequalitywealth gap, income gap, disparity, wage gap, income disparity
downward mobilityupward mobility
Rising social or economic status
social climbing · climbing the ladder · moving up in the world · rags to riches · making it
down, downward, downwards, downer, downed, downing, ward, inward, outward