Consumer confidence slips in July due to slower job growth, higher food prices
July 27, 2012
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Consumer confidence slipped in July, according to University of Michigan economist Richard Curtin, director of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. All of the overall decline was in how consumers viewed future prospects for the national economy. The Surveys, conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), have been monitoring consumer attitudes and expectations for over 60 years.
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“The good news is that consumers do not expect the economic slowdown to prompt an economy-wide recession; the bad news is that consumers do not expect the pace of economic growth to revive job and income prospects,” said Curtin. “Consumers never willingly choose to lower their aspirations; that change is slowly forced on them by unrelenting adversity. The greatest concern to consumers is that wage and job growth will remain depressed in the foreseeable future, and that these meager gains are likely to be diminished in the years ahead by rising taxes and benefit cutbacks.” View and download chart and table (Excel files). (more…)