Who Borrows: Employment Behind Short-Term Loans
The picture of a payday borrower as jobless is wrong. Most are working when they borrow.
- 7 — employment groups compared
- Employed full time — largest group
- 51.7 — its share of borrowers, %
- Employed full time — group most likely to roll over
The numbers
Employment groups ranked by share of all surveyed borrowers.
| Employment | Share of borrowers, % | Respondents | Fell into rollovers, % | Would NOT do it again, % | Median loan, $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employed full time | 51.7 | 6230 | 45.5 | 44.7 | 329 |
| Employed part time | 17.9 | 2159 | 42.7 | 41.7 | 273 |
| Unemployed | 10.3 | 1240 | 20.6 | 20.2 | 117 |
| Self-employed | 8.3 | 1005 | 28.6 | 28.4 | 164 |
| Retired | 5.1 | 619 | 38.3 | 40.2 | 241 |
| Disabled | 4.7 | 562 | 41.1 | 33.3 | 221 |
| Student | 1.9 | 232 | 37.4 | 30.1 | 200 |
How we counted
- Employment is self-reported at the time of borrowing.
- Shares are of all surveyed borrowers, not of the population.
Data updated 2026-07-31. Full dataset: data.csv.
Use this research
Free to cite, quote and chart — with attribution. Journalists and researchers are welcome to reuse the table and the dataset.
Citation: Paykedge, “Who Borrows: Employment Behind Short-Term Loans”, 2026. Available at https://paykedge.com/research/who-borrows/