In a move seemingly tied to the results of the November election, Utah’s consumer sentiment took its largest monthly jump in many months and the second-largest since November 2020. The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumer Sentiment jumped from 80.7 to 88.1, a 9.1 percent increase from October.
Meanwhile, a similar survey by the University of Michigan that measures consumer sentiment nationwide, found a much smaller change — 1.8 percent increase — in sentiment among Americans during the same time. That index rose to 71.8 from 70.5 in October.
“The large monthly change in Utah consumer sentiment appears to be correlated with the presidential election,” said Phil Dean, chief economist at the Gardner Institute. “Analysts will closely watch these variations to see if they are temporary or long-lived.”
The Utah consumer confidence survey uses key questions from the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers. These questions measure residents’ views of the present economic situation and their expectations for the economy in the future. Data gathered from the key questions are used to create the consumer confidence index for Utah. Demographic questions are included in the questionnaire to allow for additional analysis of the data and to assess the representativeness of the sample.
The full results of the monthly Utah Consumer Sentiment survey can be accessed through the Gardner Institute website at gardner.utah.edu