Casey Harper (Center Square)
Americans’ confidence in the economy fell sharply in September, the biggest change in a month since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to newly released data.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, which measures how confident Americans are in the economy, plunged in September. The figure decreased from 105.6 in August to 98.7 in September, the largest decline since August 2021.
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“Consumer confidence fell near the bottom of a narrow range over the past two years in September,” Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, said in a statement. “September’s decline was the largest since August 2021 and all five components of the index deteriorated. “Consumers’ assessments of current business conditions have become more negative, and their views of current labor market conditions have further softened.”
The federal government announced earlier this year that it significantly overestimated previous data on how many jobs the U.S. economy created last year, meaning the labor market was much weaker last year than federal data had previously shown.
In fact, the U.S. economy created 818,000 fewer jobs than federal economists previously said, a decline of about 30% and the most significant revision of jobs data in 15 years.
“Consumers were more pessimistic about future labor market conditions and less positive about future business conditions and future income,” Peterson added.
With inflation slowing early in the Biden administration, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced interest rate cuts for the first time since 2020. However, prices are still on the rise, rising more than 20% since President Joe Biden took office.
“The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Report this morning was surprisingly upbeat as consumer assessments of current labor market conditions continued to deteriorate,” Parker Ross, global chief economist at Arch Capital Group, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The indicator in this report that I am tracking most closely, the labor market gap (i.e. the net share of jobs available and hard to find), recorded its worst monthly decline in six months, extending a trend that suggests the unemployment rate will continue to fall. . “Get up,” he added.
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Wealthier Americans were more confident, while poorer Americans were less confident.
In particular, other consumer psychological data rosy picture Recently.
“Consumers aged 35 to 54 had the steepest decline in confidence. As a result, based on a six-month moving average, the 35 to 54 year old group was the least confident, while consumers under 35 were the most confident. We maintained it,” Peterson said. . “Confidence declined across most income groups in September, with consumers earning less than $50,000 experiencing the largest decline. “On a six-month rolling average, consumers earning more than $100,000 were the most confident.”
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