In March 2020, government officials and epidemiologists were telling Americans to brace for a two-month shutdown. PYMNTS Intelligence went into the field and asked 1,923 consumers directly what they thought. They said five months. In May 2020, the experts said recovery would come by fall....
Slight improvements in consumers’ expectations for business conditions, labor market conditions and incomes drove a turnaround in consumer confidence in February, The Conference Board said Tuesday (Feb. 24). The organization’s Consumer Confidence Index rose by 2.2 points in February to 91.2 after dropping in January, according...
Consumers continue to shoulder the expansion of the U.S. economy, even as late-year data reveal a more deliberate spending posture and a softer pace of overall growth. Income Growth Moderates as Spending Holds The Bureau of Economic Analysis data for December, released Friday (Feb. 20),...
Job security may be improving across the U.S. workforce, but financial confidence tells a more divided story. “Wage to Wallet™ Index: Side Work Patterns in the Labor Economy” explores how roughly 60 million hourly workers earning $50,000 or less annually are navigating rising costs, uneven...
If one theme connected fourth-quarter earnings calls across consumer packaged goods companies and discretionary brands, such as toymakers, it was the emergence of a consumer economy defined by prioritization rather than a full-fledged pullback. Executives outlined purchasing behavior shaped by sharper value sensitivity, selective trade-offs...
Tax season officially began on Jan. 26, and refunds are already starting to reach consumers’ accounts this month. While the arrival of refunds is annual, the expectations surrounding them remain grounded, shaped less by intent to splurge than by routine financial planning and household budgeting....
Prediction market platform Kalshi’s mobile app was downloaded more times in January than sports-betting apps DraftKings Sportsbook or FanDuel Sportsbook have been downloaded in any month, Apptopia said in a Tuesday (Feb. 3) blog post. The Kalshi app was downloaded more than 3 million times in the United States in January,...
Consumer spending among millennials and Generation Z is not merely holding up. It’s underwriting earnings growth across financial services and retail, while pulling daily financial life deeper into mobile channels. Gen Z is “digital by default,” as PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote in August. This...
Consumer confidence dropped to its lowest point since 2014 in January, with survey respondents expressing concerns about a range of factors that affect the economy, The Conference Board said Tuesday (Jan. 27). “References to prices and inflation, oil and gas prices, and food and grocery...