Consumer attitudes with regard to the present and the near future decreased again in April, while prices broke feeling and confidence in employment levels for the last time that we have reached the global financial crisis.
The Conference Board Consumer confidence index fell to 86 in the month, down 7.9 points compared to its previous reading and below the estimate of Dow Jones for 87.7. It was the weakest reading in almost five years.
However, the vision of the conditions more deteriorated.
The advice index, which measures how respondents look at the next six months, have increased to 54.4, a drop of 12.5 points and the lowest reading since October 2011. The heads of the Board of Directors said that reading was in accordance with a recession.
“The three components of expectations – commercial conditions, employment prospects and future income – all strongly deteriorated, reflecting omnipresent pessimism on the future,” said Stephanie Guichard, principal economist of the board of directors for the world indicator.
Guichard added that the inquiries of confidence on the whole were in “levels not seen since the start of the cocovio pandemic”.
Indeed, the level of respondents expecting employment in the next six months reached 32.1%, “almost as high as in April 2009, in the middle of the great recession,” added Guichard. This contraction lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. The level of respondents considering jobs as “difficult to obtain” at 16.6%, up for half a percentage compared to March, while those who consider jobs as “abundant” fell to 31.7%, against 33.6%.
The future income prospects have also become negative for the first time in five years.
The slowdown opinions extend to the stock market, with 48.5% expecting prices lower than the next 12 months, the worst reading since October 2011. Inflation expectations have also increased, to 7% for next year, the highest since November 2022.
Fear of pessimism was the fear of prices, which reached a record level for the investigation. Recession expectations have also reached a two -year summit.
Tuesday, in related data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that employment publications have fallen at their lowest level since September 2024. Employment openings and labor bearing survey showed 7.19 million positions, compared to 7.48 million in February and below the expectation of Wall Street of 7.5 million.
Government publications fell 59,000 in the middle of the president Donald TrumpEfforts to reduce the federal workforce. Transport, storage and public services also had a decrease of 59,000.
The JOLTS survey has shown that hiring was little changed while the layoffs dropped by 222,000.
