The economy and inflation continue to weigh on Americans' lives, with trips to the grocery store or gas station more painful than last year. Rising costs are impacting decisions of households and businesses. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Americans' attitudes toward the economy improved slightly this month as gas prices declined, but their outlook remains mostly negative by historical standards. The Conference Board said Tuesday its consumer confidence index rose 0.6 point to 91.2 in June, still below the year-ago reading of 95.2. The Iran war caused oil and gas prices to spike, accelerating inflation and reducing inflation-adjusted incomes. Before the pandemic, the index regularly topped 120. The report suggests consumer confidence is recovering only slowly from the Iran war shock.
U.S. employers pulled back on hiring last month, adding only 57,000 jobs, less than half the previous month's total, signaling cautious economic outlook. The Labor Department said Thursday the unemployment rate declined to 4.2% from 4.3% in May, though mostly because many out-of-work people gave up looking and were no longer counted as unemployed. The figures suggest companies remain wary, with inflation at a three-year high and consumer confidence near post-pandemic lows. Solid job gains initially reported in April and May were also revised lower.
U.S. filings for jobless aid fell by 1,000 to 215,000 in the week ending June 27, below the 225,000 forecast by FactSet analysts. The four-week moving average fell by 2,500 to 222,000.
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell to its lowest since mid-May, with the 30-year fixed rate dropping to 6.43% from 6.49% last week. One year ago, it was 6.67%. The rate has hovered around 6.5% since the U.S.-Iran war began in late February, disrupting crude oil flows from the Persian Gulf, sending oil prices sharply higher and driving up inflation, bond yields and mortgage rates.
U.S. job openings stayed at a surprisingly strong 7.6 million in May, as the labor market remains resilient despite the Iran war shock. Forecasters had expected 7 million openings. The job market is sturdy but not booming. Layoffs rose in May, and quits ticked up only slightly. Employers are advertising openings but not doing much hiring. Gross hiring dipped to 5.17 million in May from 5.26 million in April.