Utah consumer sentiment increases despite national sentiment decline, war in Iran
by Logan Stefanich ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Utah's consumer sentiment rose 3.1% in March despite national declines.
- A top Utah economist attributes Utah's optimism to a stronger local job market.
- War in Iran may affect future sentiment; Utah gas prices exceed national average.
SALT LAKE CITY — When it comes to thoughts on economic conditions, Utahns generally have a better outlook than the rest of the country.
The Zions Bank Consumer Sentiment Survey released Thursday shows Utah's sentiment increased by 3.1% in March, an increase that is within the survey's margin of error. Conversely, a similar survey conducted by the University of Michigan found that consumer sentiment among Americans as a whole fell 5.8% in March.
So what's with the discrepancy between how Utahns feel about the economy compared to their counterparts across the country?
Zions Bank chief economist Robert Spendlove said the discrepancy is consistent with what he sees and hears when he's talking to community groups and advising clients and businesses.
"(Utahns) don't feel like the country is on the right track as much as they'd like it to be, but they feel like, in their own lives and in the state of Utah, the economic conditions are a lot stronger," Spendlove said.
A lot of this boils down to the job market.
In February, the Associated Press reported that U.S. job openings fell to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish.
But Utah's job market has fared better than the nation's, on average.
A January report from the Utah Department of Workforce Services shows Utah's economy outpacing the nation in terms of job expansion and low unemployment, with Utah's December unemployment rate — the last month for which data was made available — estimated at 3.6% compared to the national rate of 4.4%.
Spendlove also noted that the war in Iran, being such a new development when the latest survey was conducted, likely impacted the sentiment.
The University of Michigan survey conducted interviews between Feb. 17 and March 23, with about two-thirds completing after the start of the war in Iran, which began on Feb. 28.
Similarly, the Zions Bank Consumer Sentiment survey collected interviews between Feb. 19 and March 25 with the same proportion of completed surveys in March, suggesting that Utahns increased their confidence in local economic conditions, despite the war.
"Even right now, it's so relatively new. We don't really understand what that impact is going to be. Is it just a short-term shock, or are we in for a period of longer, higher inflation prices?" Spendlove said.
One area consumers are particularly sensitive to, Spendlove said, is gas prices.
The average price of a gallon of regular gas in Utah is $4.19, slightly higher than the national average, according to AAA data.
"Over the next few weeks and months, if this (war in Iran) doesn't get significantly better pretty quickly, you're going to see consumer confidence moving down quite a bit," Spendlove said.
The full survey results can be found here.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Logan Stefanich
Logan Stefanich is a reporter with KSL, covering southern Utah communities, education, business and tech news.