Although the change in Utah’s consumer sentiment falls within the index’s margin of error, analysts see the slight increase in each of the past three months as a positive. The Zions Bank Consumer Sentiment Survey index rose 2.7 percent in August to 74.7, up from 72.7 in July. This rise follows down months in April and May.
The monthly consumer index survey is conducted by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.
In contrast to Utah’s consistency, consumer sentiment among Americans overall declined a significant 6.3 percent in August, according to the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index.
The divergence between Utah and U.S. consumer sentiment may partly reflect Utah’s labor market, which fares better than overall U.S. employment. The Utah unemployment rate is 3.6 percent, and year-over-year employment growth is 1.4 percent as of July, while U.S. unemployment rate was 4.1 percent and growth for the same period was a meager 0.2 percent.
“Once again, Utah outperformed the nation, although recent trends could dampen Utah consumer sentiment moving forward,” said Zions Bank senior economist Robert Spendlove. “Higher oil prices, inflation and interest rates are affecting consumer sentiment. However, Utahns do feel more optimistic about the future, possibly due to the stronger Utah job market.”
The Utah consumer confidence survey uses key questions from the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers. The 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 Zions Bank Consumer Sentiment Survey can be accessed at https://gardner.utah.edu/zions-bank-consumer-sentiment-survey/.
