Significance This study measures the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on workers’ economic hardship and mental health. In data representative of the active labor force, we document two interconnected layers of rapidly exacerbating inequalities. We find that occupational ranking is highly predictive of experiencing a range of instant economic hardships, such as workload decrease and income loss. Subsequent analyses indicate that such economic hardships lead to much higher prevalence of expressing adverse mental health, including feelings of depression and health anxiety. As the unprecedented societal shock of COVID-19 bears little comparison with prior economic recessions, we assert survey data of the labor force are paramount in understanding how workers’ mental health complaints came about.