There's a growing gap between the have and have-nots in our economy, and that's changing the way we move through it.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyris Dahl.

It's Thursday, February 12th.

Good to be here with you.

The K-shaped economy.

You've heard us use the phrase again and again and again to describe so many corners of the economy. But it's looking like we might need a

different letter to describe the financial divide. Bank of America released a new report that

confirms, yes, there is a growing gap between high and low-income households. But a newer and

notable trend is there are increasing signs that life is getting more difficult for the middle class.

Marketplaces Carla Javier explains.

David Tensley at the Bank of America Institute is starting to notice that a simple case shape doesn't totally summarize the situation anymore.

According to January customer data, middle-income household

spending growth was just 1%, compared to 2.5% for high-income households.

So if you like, there's a K-shape opening up between higher-income households and middle-income

households as well. A K within a K. And if their spending continues to soften,

Tinsley says, The economy would struggle to maintain overall consumer momentum. At Big Chalk

Analytics, which works with retailers, restaurants and companies that make package goods,

Rick Miller says he doesn't really think of spending as a straightforward K these days either.

In our data, we see that there are household budgeting stresses happening across the spectrum of incomes.

Which is why he likes to split consumers up by whether or not they're making tradeoffs.

He says tradeoff consumers are actively cutting the size of the not they're making tradeoffs. He says tradeoff consumers are

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