{"id":364543,"date":"2025-12-23T21:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364543\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T21:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:23:12","slug":"u-s-consumer-confidence-plummets-to-lowest-level-since-trumps-april-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364543\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. consumer confidence plummets to lowest level since Trump\u2019s April tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Shoppers wait in line to enter Macy’s flagship store in New York on Nov. 28.Angelina Katsanis\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Consumers\u2019 confidence in the economy was shaken in December as Americans grew anxious about high prices and the impact of President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs.<\/p>\n

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell 3.8 points to 89.1 in December, the fifth straight monthly decline and approaching the 85.7 reading from April, when Trump rolled out his import taxes on U.S. trading partners. November\u2019s reading was upwardly revised to 92.9.<\/p>\n

A measure of Americans\u2019 short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market remained stable at 70.7, but still well below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead. It was the 11th consecutive month that reading has come in under 80.<\/p>\n

Consumers\u2019 assessments of their current economic situation tumbled 9.5 points to 116.8.<\/p>\n

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Write-in responses to the survey showed that prices and inflation remained consumers\u2019 biggest concern, along with tariffs, despite repeated claims by President Trump that inflation is a hoax.<\/p>\n

Perceptions of the job market also declined this month.<\/p>\n

The conference board\u2019s survey reported that 26.7 per cent of consumers said jobs were \u201cplentiful,\u201d down from 28.2 per cent in November. Also, 20.8 per cent of consumers said jobs were \u201chard to get,\u201d up from 20.1 per cent last month.<\/p>\n

Last week, the government reported that the U.S. economy gained a healthy 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October. Notably, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6 per cent last month, the highest since 2021.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s labour market has been stuck in a \u201clow hire, low fire\u201d state, economists say, as businesses stand pat due to uncertainty over Trump\u2019s tariffs and the lingering effects of elevated interest rates. Since March, job creation has fallen to an average 35,000 a month, compared to 71,000 in the year ended in March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said recently that he suspects those numbers will be revised even lower.<\/p>\n

Despite the broad pessimism, the proportion of those surveyed who think a recession in the next year is unlikely grew.<\/p>\n

The December survey showed that respondents\u2019 views of their family\u2019s current financial situation sank into negative territory for the first time in close to four years. On the flip side, expectations about their future financial situation were the most positive since January.<\/p>\n

Also Tuesday, the government reported that the economy expanded at a 4.3 per cent annual rate in the third quarter, though economists expect a much more sluggish fourth quarter due to the government shutdown and a potential pullback in consumer spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Shoppers wait in line to enter Macy’s flagship store in New York on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-364543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364543","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=364543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}