Economic sentiment went almost unchanged over the past two weeks. The HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI) fell 0.1 points to 33.8, largely driven by a decrease in confidence in finding a new job.
The ESI’s indicators were split between increasing and decreasing, and for the second time this year, confidence in making a major purchase went unchanged. Confidence in finding a new job changed the most—decreasing 2.0 points to 43.3 over the past two weeks.
- Confidence in the overall U.S. economy fell 0.1 points to 34.1.
- Confidence in making a major purchase remained the same at 19.8.
- Confidence in buying a new home rose 1.7 points to 22.7.
- Confidence in personal finances rose 0.3 points to 49.2.
The U.S. job market began to show signs of cooling off, as employers created 315,000 jobs in August, a significant decrease from the revised 526,000 jobs created in July. The unemployment rate also ticked up 0.2 percentage points to 3.7%.
