WASHINGTON — Consumers' confidence in the economy was shaken in December as Americans grew anxious about high prices and the impact of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell 3.8 points to 89.1 in December, the fifth straight monthly decline and approaching the 85.7 reading from April, when Trump rolled out his import taxes on U.S. trading partners. November's reading was upwardly revised to 92.9.
A measure of Americans' short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market 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.
Consumers' assessments of their current economic situation tumbled 9.5 points to 116.8.
Write-in responses to the survey showed that prices and inflation remained consumers' biggest concern, along with tariffs, despite repeated claims by President Trump that inflation is a hoax.
Perceptions of the job market also declined this month.
The conference board's survey reported that 26.7% of consumers said jobs were ''plentiful,'' down from 28.2% in November. Also, 20.8% of consumers said jobs were ''hard to get,'' up from 20.1% last month.
Last week, the government reported that the U.S. economy gained a healthy 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October. Notably, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month, the highest since 2021.
