Google Trends Data Shows ‘Recession’ Searches Have Soared 355 Percent This Year

The Google logo adorns the outside of their office building in New York on June 3, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust has faced selling pressure for most of 2022 on continued supply-chain constraints, lingering COVID-19 lockdowns in China, and rising inflation concerns. As the Federal Reserve continues to aggressively fight inflation, search data suggests investors are increasingly anticipating an economic slowdown.

What to Know

Searches for the term “recession” in the United States are up 355 percent in 2022, according to Google Trends data compiled by Cinch Home Services. “Upcoming recession” searches have jumped 247 percent over the past year, while “housing recession” searches soared 461 percent.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Trends platform shows data points that represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart. A value of 100 represents the time of peak popularity for the term. A value of 50, for example, indicates that the term is half as popular at the selected time.

March 2020 previously represented the peak for “recession” searches before the significant surge this year. Relative to the new 2022 peak, 2020 has a value of 64 and 2008 has a value of 51, meaning searches for “recession” in 2008 were only about half as frequent as current search trends.

Why It Matters

Just last week, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points for the third straight time and indicated it would continue to hike well above the current level.

The Fed has now raised rates by a total of 3 percentage points in 2022, but the latest Consumer Price Index reading of 8.3 percent shows inflation is still hovering around the highest levels seen in more than 40 years.

In a press conference following the decision on rates, Fed Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed the central bank’s commitment to bringing inflation back down to its 2 percent goal.

“Restoring price stability is essential to set the stage for achieving maximum employment and stable prices over the longer run. We will keep at it until we’re confident the job is done,” Powell said.

By Adam Eckert

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