{"id":331972,"date":"2025-12-23T18:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/331972\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T18:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:50:12","slug":"consumer-confidence-slides-in-december-to-lowest-level-since-trumps-tariffs-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/331972\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Confidence Slides In December To Lowest Level Since Trump\u2019s Tariffs Rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Consumers confidence in the economy was shaken in December as Americans grow anxious about high prices<\/a> and the impact of President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s sweeping tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

A measure of Americans\u2019 short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market<\/a> 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

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump takes questions from journalists after announcing the US Navy’s new Golden Fleet initiative, unveiling a new class of warships, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 22, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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

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

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

The country\u2019s labor 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 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% annual rate<\/a> in the third quarter, though economists expect a much more sluggish fourth quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Consumers confidence in the economy was shaken in December as Americans grow anxious about high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,94700,141,1294,156,6943,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-331972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-consumer-reports","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-tariffs","tag-u-s-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}