40% of Consumers Are Pessimistic About the Economy, up From 32% in May 

Consumers’ perception of the economy has darkened since the spring. While 32% of consumers were pessimistic about the economy in May, that figure rose to 40% by October, according to Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report, a PYMNTS and LendingClub collaboration based on surveys of more than 36,000 U.S. consumers. 

Get the report: Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report 

Consumers’ views about the economy directly relate to their financial status, with a greater percentage of those living paycheck to paycheck being pessimistic. 

For example, 46% of the consumers who are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay their bills are pessimistic about the economy. 

Among the consumers who are slightly better off — those who live paycheck to paycheck but are not struggling to pay their bills — 41% say they are pessimistic. 

Consumers who have broken the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle are the most financially secure and the least pessimistic, but even they have not escaped that gloom that is weighing upon the minds of so many people. PYMNTS found that 37% of these individuals are pessimistic about the economy. 

Such widespread economic pessimism doesn’t come from nowhere. The main driver of consumers’ pessimism is the inflation that is increasing the cost of living. That concern is growing, too, with the proportion of respondents who are highly concerned about inflation increasing from 66% in May to 81% in October. 

Inflation is the economic issue that is of the most concern to individuals in all financial situations. Other key concerns cited by consumers who live paycheck to paycheck are the U.S. dollar losing its value, businesses going bankrupt and a global crisis impacting the domestic economy. More than half of the consumers living paycheck to paycheck said they had those concerns. 

Consumers who do not live paycheck to paycheck share those concerns, but more than half of them cited one more: restrictions preventing business functions. More than half of the consumers who are living paycheck to paycheck but are comfortable also had that concern.