The change in consumer sentiment in Utah from April to May was statistically insignificant, according to pollsters from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah. The institute’s Survey of Utah Consumer Sentiment rose only slightly — up 1.8 percent, from 76.3 in April to 77.7 in May.
But things weren’t quite as rosy for Americans as a whole, A similar survey by the University of Michigan found that sentiment fell 10.5 percent nationwide for the same time period — from 77.2 to 69.1.
“Utah’s consumer sentiment jumped last month and is now statistically significantly higher than that of the U.S. after several months of being similar to the U.S.,” said Phil Dean, chief economist at the Gardner Institute. “This returns to the more typical trend in recent years of Utah generally following the national trends but remaining above the U.S. level. I expect sentiment to continue to fluctuate in this uncertain environment.”
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.