New York Fed: Tight job market impacts consumer confidence

soft labor market this summer has affected Americans' views on the economic outlook. The latest consumer expectations survey from the New York Fed shows that in August, consumers' views on future job prospects and unemployment worsened, while short-term inflation expectations rose. In August, the proportion of people expecting the unemployment rate to rise in the next year increased by 1.7 percentage points from July to reach 39.1%. At the same time, the expectation of finding a new job if they were to lose their current job decreased by 5.8 percentage points to 44.9% - the lowest level since the New York Fed began tracking this data in June 2013. The pessimism about the labor market may be justified. Recruitment has been weak since May. In August, the US added only 22,000 jobs, far below the expected increase of 76,500 jobs by economists. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, the highest level since 2021, and the number of people applying for unemployment benefits in August steadily increased.