U.S. economic confidence plummets in June, survey shows

by Matthew Rusling

Americans' confidence in their economy plunged during the week ending June 12 on the heels of a worsening jobs outlook, six straight weeks of stock market losses and amid fears of a global economic slowdown, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.

While economic confidence saw a bump in May during the week after al- Qaida kingpin Osama bin Laden's death, Americans had become more pessimistic about the economy, with confidence reverting to the late April level, the survey indicates.

Gallup's economic confidence index consists of two items: one measuring Americans' views about whether the U.S. economy is "getting better" or "getting worse" and the other measuring Americans' ratings of current economic conditions as "excellent," "good," "only fair," or "poor." The plunge was attributable to declines in both items, Gallup found.

The number of Americans who said the U.S. economy was getting better took a nose dive to 30 percent, down from 37 percent during most of May and near the year's lowest point. The figure is five points below the reading for the same week in 2010.

Nearly half of Americans rated the current economic conditions as poor, matching the highest level for "poor" ratings so far in 2011. These ratings are three points worse than the previous week and three points lower than a year ago.

Gallup's measures of unemployment and underemployment - those working part-time but seeking full-time jobs - have shown no improvement compared with a year ago.

At the same time, the official U.S. unemployment rate, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, worsened from 8.8 percent in March to 9 percent in April and hit 9.1 percent in May.

Even a recent decline in the gas price to 3.78 U.S. dollars per gallon failed to offset the decline in consumer optimism, in part because overall pump prices remained more than 1 U.S. dollar per gallon higher than a year ago, Gallup found.

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Source:Xinhua

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