US consumer confidence index falls to 81.9 in September — CNBC
In the United States, the Conference Board consumer confidence index fell to 81.9 points in September, 6.7 points lower than in August. The figure was also below the Dow Jones consensus forecast of 89 points, CNBC reports.
Prices and employment concern consumers
Survey respondents increasingly expressed concerns about inflation and the situation in the labor market. For the first time in the four-year history of the relevant question, the share of those who consider their financial situation poor exceeded the share of respondents with a positive assessment of their own finances.
Conference Board Chief Economist Dana Peterson said assessments of current business conditions turned negative for the first time since September 2024. According to her, survey participants mentioned prices, the high cost of goods and services, as well as oil and gas prices much more frequently in their responses. She linked this to a jump in fuel costs in September.
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Assessments of the situation and expectations worsened
The present situation index fell by 7.9 points to 109.3. The expectations index for the next six months dropped by 5.9 points to 63.6. The gap between the share of people who consider jobs plentiful and those who call them hard to get narrowed by 2.5 percentage points to 1.7%.
Respondents' average inflation expectations rose by 0.3 percentage points from August to 6.1%. The median expectation also increased by 0.3 points to 5.1%. The University of Michigan survey also recorded a 7% decline in consumer sentiment in September; its reading became the second lowest on record.
Separately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of job openings in the United States fell by 256,000 in August to 7.08 million. The market expected 7.2 million openings. The number of hires rose slightly, the number of voluntary quits changed little, and the number of employer layoffs decreased slightly.
