US consumer confidence falls to near 12½-year low in September
Business & MarketsWell-covered
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The Facts
- The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell 6.7 points to 81.9 in September.
- September consumer confidence reached its lowest level since 2014.
- Consumers’ assessments of current conditions and future expectations both declined.
- Households expected business and labor-market conditions to worsen over the next six months.
- References to prices and the cost of goods, services, oil and gas increased in the survey.
- Higher energy and mortgage costs have increased affordability pressures for households.
Context
What is the consumer confidence index?
It is a Conference Board survey measuring consumers’ views of current economic conditions and their expectations for the future. Axios Straits Times
What concerns did consumers report?
The Conference Board said references to prices and the cost of goods and services, particularly oil and gas, rose in September. Axios Straits Times
How does this compare with recent labor-market data?
Labor Department data showed job openings fell to 7.079 million in August, while layoffs remained low. Investing.com mint U.S. News & World R…
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- Where Left and Right agree
- Consumer confidence sank to its lowest since 2014 because rising energy and mortgage costs are squeezing real household budgets, a pressure both framings treat as genuine, not manufactured.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- Whether the takeaway is an open question about which signal — aggregate job data or household experience — deserves more trust, or a clear mandate for policymakers to deliver relief.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is empirical trust in which data source measures reality: household sentiment surveys about affordability versus labor-market metrics like job openings and layoffs, and each side treats its preferred measure as the one that matters.
How left and right read it
What people can actually afford should set the terms of economic policy, and right now households are telling us they cannot keep up: references to prices for goods, services, oil and gas climbed as higher energy and mortgage costs squeezed budgets. That is why confidence dropped to its weakest since 2014, with families expecting business and labor conditions to worsen over the next six months. Sturdy aggregate job numbers do not pay a gas bill. So whose reassurance counts more?
“The U.S. job market is sturdy, though unspectacular, despite an energy shock from the Iran war.” — ABC News
Households shouldn't have to absorb rising energy and mortgage costs while being told the labor market is fine, because confidence collapsing to its lowest point since 2014 shows people trust their own budgets more than the reassurance. That skepticism is earned: current conditions and future expectations both slid, and families now expect business and labor conditions to worsen, not stabilize. Policymakers owe households relief from these affordability pressures, not another round of resilience talk.
“The U.S. labor market has been remarkably resilient this year, defying predictions that the energy shock from the Iran war would be a drag on payrolls.” — Breitbart
The receipts — all 44 sources
Wire services (9)
Independent coverage (35)
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