1、Growth,Marketing&Sales PracticeUS consumers send mixed signals in an uncertain economyWith inflationary pressures and a tight labor market,our latest Consumer Pulse Survey shows that shoppers across America are sometimes feeling and acting in contradictory ways.by Tamara Charm,Nancy Lu,and Kelsey Ro

2、binsonApril 2023US consumers send mixed signals in an uncertain economy2A few months into this year,the state of the US economy continues to be in great flux.Although inflation rates are lower than this time last year,they still remain high,more than twice the Federal Reserves target.Federal Reserve

3、 officials have raised interest rates over the past year,and are signaling that more increases are still to come.And while layoffs dominate headlines,the US unemployment rate remains low,at 3.5 percent as of March 2023,and the labor market remains very tight.Its no wonder,then,that as the US economy

4、 continues to send mixed signals,consumers are doing the same.According to the results of our latest US Consumer Pulse Survey,theyre worried about rising prices and job security,yet theyre optimistic and still spending.Theyre switching to less expensive brands to save money,but theyre also willing t

5、o splurge on certain goods and services.And three years since the onset of COVID-19,some prepandemic shopping habits have returned with a vengeance,yet other new pandemic-induced changes in spending seem here to stay.The picture can be perplexing.Cecilia Rouse,who served as Chair of the White House

6、Council of Economic Advisors until the end of March 2023,recently told the New York Times,“Sometimes I,in this course of the last few years,wished my PhD was in psychology,”instead of in economics.1Our latest research lifts the lid on some of these dichotomies and complexities of US consumer sentime