The slow start to the holiday shopping season underlines the findings of McKinsey's latest Consumer Sentiment Survey. Every six to twelve months since August 2008, we have asked a representative sample of at least 1,000 Americans about their views on the economy and their own financial future, and how these opinions are shaping their buying decisions. The result is a unique data set that tracks how attitudes and behaviors have changed over the past six years. In addition, we have completed nine surveys outside the U.S., giving our data a global perspective.
Here are the salient findings from this year's survey:
Our report in September 2012 showed that things were looking up for most Americans. Many aspects of consumer sentiment indicated marked improvement. Yet from there, things have either plateaued or gotten worse. Consumers are still worried about losing their jobs (39 percent in 2014), and 40 percent of the consumers we surveyed said they are coping with the challenge of living paycheck to paycheck, up from 31 percent in 2012.
The significant economic pressure that families earning less than $75,000 a year feel has caused many of them to make spending adjustments in order to make ends meet. Roughly 40 percent of these households say they are making changes, including cutting back and delaying purchases, as compared to 22 percent of those in households earning at least $150,000 a year. Americans at all income levels have yet to return to their pre-recession positive feelings about the country's economy. Today just 23 percent say they are optimistic about the economy, down from 27 percent at the beginning of the recession in 2009.
