{"id":3905,"date":"2025-10-14T13:12:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/14\/consumer-outlook-for-household-finances-falls-to-lowest-in-over-a-decade-survey\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T13:12:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:12:49","slug":"consumer-outlook-for-household-finances-falls-to-lowest-in-over-a-decade-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/14\/consumer-outlook-for-household-finances-falls-to-lowest-in-over-a-decade-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer outlook for household finances falls to lowest in over a decade: Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. consumers<\/a> have rarely felt worse about their economic futures<\/a>, according to data released Friday from the University of Michigan’s widely followed Surveys of Consumers. <\/p>\n

Consumers\u2019 five-year outlooks for their household finances fell to the lowest in over a decade in October, preliminary results of the monthly survey found. With an index reading of 96, it’s the worst month since at least July 2011, when the survey resumed asking the question about the five-year outlook. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Overall consumer sentiment was essentially unchanged from September, <\/a>but was down 22% compared with the reading for October 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear consumers don\u2019t feel like they\u2019re thriving,\u201d said Joanne Hsu, the survey\u2019s director. While consumers indicate that the prospect of a major financial calamity remains low, \u201cthey expect to continue to not thrive,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s shifting trade policies and federal spending cuts have helped keep the U.S. economy mired in uncertainty. <\/p>\n

Trump was elected to a second term on promises to supercharge economic growth and bring down inflation. During his first few months in office, optimism that he would fulfill these promises buoyed consumer sentiment.<\/p>\n

But the Trump bump evaporated starting in July, and the outlook measure has declined every month since. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe headwinds facing households from the weak labor market and drag on real income growth from tariff-induced price increases\u201d suggest the recent pace of consumer spending is \u201cunsustainable,\u201d Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economics analyst at Pantheon Macroeconomics research group, wrote in a note Friday.<\/p>\n

The October downturn in the five-year outlook reading was driven primarily by middle-income households, whose sentiment fell to near all-time lows.<\/p>\n

Among all households, concerns about unemployment and inflation remained elevated, the survey found. <\/p>\n

Approximately 63% of respondents said they expect the unemployment rate to rise over the next year. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, long-run inflation expectations were unchanged, with the pace of price growth expected to hit 3.7% over the next five years. That is well above the Federal Reserve\u2019s official 2% inflation target. <\/p>\n

The latest NBC News Grocery Tracker shows inflation for many essentials remains elevated, with prices for ground beef and orange juice having moved sharply higher in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Perceptions of whether the federal government is doing a good job of fighting inflation and unemployment hit new lows in October. Among the respondents, 66% said Washington is doing a \u201cpoor\u201d job, while just 18% said the effort was \u201cgood.\u201d <\/p>\n

The latest Michigan survey was conducted from Sept. 23 to Oct. 6. <\/p>\n

In a statement, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said: \u201cRobust real wage, consumer spending, and retail sales growth indicate that the Administration\u2019s efforts to tame Joe Biden\u2019s inflation crisis and get American booming again are paying off. As President Trump\u2019s full suite of economic policies \u2014 from rapid deregulation to tax cuts to historic trade deals \u2014 continue to take effect, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new Michigan data dovetails with other recent surveys that show ailing consumer health. <\/p>\n

The Conference Board found<\/a> that consumer confidence in September fell to its lowest level since April, when Trump unveiled massive \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariff increases that shook global markets. <\/p>\n

And earlier this week, the New York Federal Reserve\u2019s survey of consumer expectations showed<\/a> a reduced outlook for earnings growth, greater likelihood of losing one\u2019s job and a higher likelihood of a rise in overall unemployment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. consumers have rarely felt worse about their economic futures, according to data released Friday from the University of Michigan’s widely followed Surveys of Consumers. Consumers\u2019 five-year outlooks for their household finances fell to the lowest in over a decade in October, preliminary results of the monthly survey found. With an index reading of 96, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}