ESI: Consumer Confidence In The Job And Housing Markets Continue To Diverge With Record-Setting Readings
Overall economic sentiment fell again over the last two weeks, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI), dropping 1.4 points to 48.7. While job market confidence increased another 1.5 points to 60.5, an all-time high for the third reading in a row, housing market confidence tumbled 2.6 points to 35.8, a record low for the second consecutive reading.
As COVID-19 restrictions dissipate, jobs are plentiful, but workers are not. Especially in lower-wage industries like hospitality, positions are widely available—but employers are struggling to fill them. On the other hand, intense demand and short supply are driving home prices to grow at the fastest pace in 15 years. These forces in the job and housing markets are tugging overall economic sentiment in polar opposite directions; the remaining three ESI indicators also display a mixed consumer confidence:
– Confidence in the U.S. economy dropped 2.6 points to 49.4.
– Consumer confidence in making a major purchase fell 3.6 points to 40.0, the lowest reading in 2021.
– Confidence in personal finances ticked up 0.2 points to 57.6.
The three-day moving average began on May 12 at 50.4 and declined for a week, hitting its low of 47.0 on May 19. It then rose to 51.0, its high this period, on May 24 and closed out at 49.9 on May 25.
About the Index
The HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (“ESI”) is a “living” index that measures U.S. adults’ expectations for the economy going forward, as well as their feelings about current conditions for major purchases. The primary goal of the Index is to accurately measure movements in overall national economic sentiment and to provide a more sophisticated alternative to existing economic sentiment indices. Unlike other prominent indices that release consumer sentiment estimates infrequently, the HPS-CivicScience Index is updated in real time as responses are collected continuously every hour, every day. Large-scale cross-tabulation of survey responses and consumer attributes enable more granular analyses than are currently possible through prevailing measures. For a more detailed overview of the Index and the underlying methodology, please request a white paper.
About CivicScience
CivicScience, Inc. provides the leading intelligent polling and real-time consumer insights platform, the InsightStore™. Its proprietary platform powers the world’s opinions and quickly gets that data to the decision makers who care. Every day, CivicScience polls ask millions of people questions related to thousands of topics, while its powerful data science and big data technology analyzes current consumer opinions, discovers trends as they start, and accurately predicts future behaviors and market outcomes. CivicScience polls run on hundreds of premier websites, in addition to its own public polling site at www.civicscience.com. CivicScience’s InsightStore™ is used by leading enterprises in marketing research, advertising, media, financial services, and political polling. For more information, visit CivicScience by clicking here and follow them on Twitter – @CivicScience.