According to a Conference Board survey released Tuesday, consumer confidence declined even more in March as the outlook for the future dropped to its lowest point in over ten years.
For the fourth consecutive month, the board’s monthly confidence indicator of current conditions contracted by 7.2 points to 92.9. The Dow Jones survey of economists had been anticipating a result of 93.5.
Even worse news was revealed by the future expectations measure, which saw the index plummet 9.6 points to 65.2, the lowest level in 12 years and much below the 80 mark that is thought to be a warning sign for an impending recession.
The indicator gauges respondents’ expectations for their future employment, business, and income.
According to Stephanie Guichard, senior economist for global indicators at The Conference Board, “consumers’ optimism about future income — which had held up quite strongly in the past few months — largely vanished, suggesting worries about the economy and labor market have started to spread into consumers’ assessments of their personal situations.”
An unstable stock market and other surveys indicating declining sentiment have coupled with concerns over President Donald Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on U.S. imports.
Although it was dispersed across income categories, the drop in confidence was mostly caused by a dip in people aged 55 and over.
Along with the widespread pessimism, only 37.4% of respondents predicted rising share prices in the upcoming year, indicating a severe decline in the prognosis for the stock market. This was the first negative shift in the perspective since late 2023, and it represented a 10 percentage point decline from February.
The labor market outlook also deteriorated, with those anticipating fewer jobs rising to 28.5% and those anticipating more jobs dropping to 16.7%. The February values were 18.8% and 26.6%, respectively.
