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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Rural Americans are not feeling as good about the economy as the rest of the country is

U.S. consumers are feeling better about the economy, but less so in rural areas, Matt Nager reports for The Wall Street Journal. A real-time measure of how consumers feel about the economy rose from 38.5 in October to 45.7 this month, but the number was only 40.1 in rural areas, the biggest gap between rural areas and cities since February. The number was 47.4 in cities and 45.9 in suburbs.

The Economic Sentiment Index, developed by lobbying and consulting firm Hamilton Place Strategies and pollster Civic Science, "measures U.S. adults’ expectations for the economy going forward, as well as their feelings about current conditions for major purchases," according to the ESI website.

"People living in rural areas often answer more pessimistically to economic-survey questions," Nager writes. "Still, the sizeable gap in sentiment between rural and city Americans is a reminder that things that move confidence, like a soaring stock market or Washington’s infighting, can boost or hamper sentiment for some groups and not others. While Americans’ confidence levels generally fell in October, likely because of the government shutdown, the drop was less steep for rural people than city people. And while confidence has now broadly recovered, sentiment among one group—people ages 18 to 24—has barely improved at all so far this month, according to CivicScience’s numbers." (Read more)

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