Fears over the state of the labor market hurt consumer confidence in February, according to the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index.
Americans are getting increasingly concerned about the state of the labor market even as their worries about the price of food and gas are becoming less urgent, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index showed on Tuesday.
Consumers appear less optimistic about their financial conditions over the next six months and their sense that the U.S. will plunge into a recession ticked up after declining over the last three months.
They are also looking to shelve plans to buy big-ticket items, such as cars and homes partly due to expectations that interest rates will rise over the next six months. The one thing they are upbeat about is the trajectory of the stock market over the next year.
Overall, consumer confidence fell in February after a rise of optimism towards the end of last year and the beginning of 2024.
«The decline in consumer confidence in February interrupted a three-month rise, reflecting persistent uncertainty about the US economy,» Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, said in a statement.
