An initial reading of economic sentiment among U.S. consumers in February showed outlooks remained largely unchanged from January, with slightly higher optimism on current economic conditions compared to future economic prospects.
New survey data released Friday shows that the University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment increased to 57.3 from 56.4 in January, a 1.6% gain. Economists polled by Bloomberg had predicted a reading of 55.
Widespread and lingering concerns about the price impacts from tariffs and weak job creation have weighed on consumers to start 2026, the same issues that have worried consumers since early 2025 when President Donald Trump first announced his signature tariff policies.
“Concerns about the erosion of personal finances from high prices and elevated risk of job loss continue to be widespread,” said Joanna Hsu, director of Surveys of Consumers at the university, in a statement released with the survey results.
Sentiment improvements in January that were maintained in February were seen “across the income distribution, educational attainment, older and younger consumers, and Republicans and Democrats alike,” as Hsu characterized it last month.
However, initial results for February include an addendum on how the sentiment gap is widening between people with large stock holdings and those who do not own stocks. As capital investment on artificial intelligence fuels an ever-larger portion of economic output, brighter outlooks on the economy have become concentrated among consumers with greater exposure to high-flying stock market returns.
Meanwhile, new government data released this week showed a sharp 5.8% decline in job openings in December and a notable downward revision of more than 200,000 job openings to November’s totals.
Other signals showing soft hiring and a jump in layoffs on private company payrolls in January affirm consumers’ reported concerns over job security and job creation.
Still, the Federal Reserve cited stabilization in labor markets supported by a low unemployment rate of 4.4% in December and “clearly improved” outlooks for economic growth in 2026 when announcing a pause in interest rate cuts last week.
Among component indexes, the University of Michigan’s current situation index that rose 10% in January lifted another 5% as of early February, but still remained 11% below levels observed a year ago. The index tracking consumers’ expectations for the economy to improve over the next six months declined 0.7% over the month as those outlooks dimmed.
A separate widely cited sentiment survey published by The Conference Board at the end of January posted decade-low levels of consumer optimism, somewhat at odds with the modest brightening that the University of Michigan’s survey recorded.
The university will update the initial survey results for February at the end of the month.
