American households’ optimism about their future financial situation about a year into President-elect Donald Trump’s second term has surged to the highest level in more than four years, a new Federal Reserve survey shows, with the notable rise coming despite an uptick in labor market uncertainty and inflation expectations across all time horizons.
The New York Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations, carried out in the weeks following the November election and released on Dec. 9, reveals that the share of households expecting a better financial situation in the year ahead climbed to 37.6 percent, the highest level since February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic sent the economy into a recession. Meanwhile, the share of respondents anticipating a worse financial outlook fell to 20.7 percent, the lowest level since May 2021.
