{"id":181694,"date":"2025-10-01T04:28:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/181694\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T04:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:28:18","slug":"us-consumer-confidence-declines-again-as-americans-fret-over-prices-job-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/181694\/","title":{"rendered":"US consumer confidence declines again as Americans fret over prices, job market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. consumer confidence declined again in September as Americans\u2019 pessimism over inflation and the weakening job market<\/a> continued to grow.<\/p>\n

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell by 3.6 points to 94.2 in September, down from August\u2019s 97.8. That\u2019s a bigger drop than analysts were expecting and the lowest reading since April, when President Donald Trump rolled out his sweeping tariff policy.<\/p>\n

A measure of Americans\u2019 short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market fell to 73.4, remaining well below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead. Consumers\u2019 assessments of their current economic situation dipped by 7 points to 125.4.<\/p>\n

Write-in responses to the survey showed that references to prices and inflation rose this month, regaining its top position as consumers\u2019 main concern about the economy. Mentions of tariffs declined this month but remain elevated, the Conference Board said.<\/p>\n

Government data released earlier this month showed that inflation rose in August<\/a> as the price of gas, groceries and airfares jumped.<\/p>\n

Consumer prices increased 2.9% last month from a year earlier, the Labor Department said, up from 2.7% the previous month and the biggest jump since January. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 3.1%, the same as in July.<\/p>\n

While unemployment and layoffs remain historically low, there has been noticeable deterioration in the labor market<\/a> this year and mounting evidence that people are having difficulty finding jobs.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the government reported that U.S. nonfarm employers added a paltry 22,000 jobs<\/a> in August, following July\u2019s disappointing 79,000 job gains. Worse, revisions to the May and June figures shaved 258,000 jobs off previous estimates. The unemployment rate stands at 4.3%, the highest since October 2021.<\/p>\n

Also Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that U.S. job openings in August remained at 7.2 million, about the same as the previous month.<\/p>\n

In addition to the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve\u2019s inflation fighters in 2022 and 2023, economists say the recent hiring slump may also be a result of Trump\u2019s policies, including his sweeping and ever-changing tariffs<\/a> on imports, a crackdown on illegal immigration<\/a> and purges of the federal workforce.<\/p>\n

Many companies are locked in a \u201cno hire, no fire\u201d position, fearful of expanding payrolls until the effects of Trump\u2019s tariffs are more clear.<\/p>\n

More jobs data comes Friday when the government releases its September labor market data, with analysts forecasting 50,000 job gains. However, that report could be postponed if a budget impasse in Congress leads to a government shutdown<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. consumer confidence declined again in September as Americans\u2019 pessimism over inflation and the weakening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,10081,91871,46,12522,862,91870],"class_list":["post-181694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer-confidence","tag-consumer-confidence-index","tag-economy","tag-labor-department","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-the-conference-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}