U.S. consumer confidence hits seven-month low in August 2026

U.S. consumer confidence hits seven-month low in August 2026

Tue, August 25, 2026 at 8:09 PM GMT+3 2 min read

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell for a second consecutive month in August, with the index slipping 0.8 points to 89.4 — its weakest mark since January — after July's figure was revised down to 90.2, the organization said Tuesday.

The decline was driven by a drop in the Expectations Index, which measures consumers' six-month outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions. That gauge fell 5.8 points to 68.2, more than offsetting a 6.8-point rise in the Present Situation Index to 121.2 — the first improvement in that measure in four months. An Expectations Index reading below 80 is generally associated with a recession within the next year, the Conference Board noted.

"Consumers were more pessimistic about business conditions and the labor market over the next six months," Dana M. Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, said in a statement. "Expectations for household incomes moderated but remained optimistic overall."

All three components of the Expectations Index deteriorated in August. Net expectations for business conditions dipped 2.5 percentage points to -6.3%, while the net labor market outlook softened by 2.6 percentage points to -11.5%. Net income expectations fell 3.1 percentage points but remained positive at +3.8%.

Perceptions of current conditions were more mixed. The share of consumers describing jobs as "plentiful" rose to 27.0% from 24.4% in July, while those saying jobs were "hard to get" fell to 19.5% from 21.7%, bringing the labor market differential to its highest point of the year. Views of current business conditions improved marginally, with the net share describing conditions as "good" edging up to +1.3%.

Open-ended responses submitted to the survey took a slightly darker tone in August. Mentions of prices broadly — and energy costs in particular — stayed high, and respondents more frequently brought up armed conflict, geopolitical tensions, food costs, trade issues, and employment concerns than they had a month earlier. Data collection ran from August 3 through August 16, a stretch during which pump prices averaged more than $4 a gallon nationally, according to Bloomberg. Households anticipated that inflation would run at 5.8% over the coming year, up from 5.6% the prior month.

Confidence has been on a broad downward trend. The Conference Board's index fell 1.4 points to 90.8 in July, the third consecutive month of decline at the time, with the Present Situation Index dropping for a third straight month and the Expectations Index holding in negative territory. The index had held above 100 throughout much of late 2024 and into early 2025.

On a six-month moving average basis, confidence trended down across all age groups but remained highest among consumers under 35. By political affiliation, confidence among independents and Republicans softened, while Democrats were somewhat more positive in August.