US consumer confidence recovers in October as gas prices eased a bit

(AP) — American confidence in the economy rebounded somewhat in October as gas prices fell modestly, though it remains much more expensive to fill up a tank than last year at this time.

A woman pushes a shopping cart as she leaves a grocery store in Arlington Heights, Ill., Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose 7.5 points to 91.7 in October from 84.2 last month. September’s reading was the lowest in the board’s survey since April 2014 and below the lowest level reached during the pandemic.

Yet Americans remain flustered by the economy after five years of elevated inflation, potentially posing a risk to President Donald Trump and Republicans in the midterm elections next Tuesday.

Respondents’ views of their present situation rose by 6.9 points to 72.6 while their short-term outlook climbed 8.6 points to 120.4.

“The recovery was in line with retail gasoline prices easing from September to October,” said Fergus McCormick, a senior economist for The Conference Board. “Yet, despite the increase in October, consumer confidence remained on the long-term downward trend that’s persisted over the past few years.”

According to the auto club AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. was $4.27 Tuesday, down from $4.48 a month ago. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular in the U.S. averaged $3.05.

Write-in responses to the board’s survey, collected between October 1-21, were still broadly pessimistic this month, with frequent references to the high cost of energy, goods and services.

Trump has continued to blame high prices on his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, yet inflation has risen since Trump’s inauguration last year.

Earlier this month, the government reported that consumer inflation accelerated in September as goods and services became more expensive, evidence that rising prices remain an economic challenge just seven days before midterm elections that have focused heavily on affordability.

The consumer price index rose 3.7% in September compared with a year ago, according to the Labor Department, up from 3.4% in August. On a monthly basis, costs jumped 0.6% from August to September, the biggest gain in five months.

Six weeks ago, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2023 in an effort to tamp down that stubbornly high inflation, and the central bank signaled another rate hike could occur later this year, though few expect it at this week’s Fed meeting.

The quarter-point increase lifted the Fed’s key rate to about 3.9% and, over time, could result in higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

The most recent measure of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE — rose 3.4% in August from a year earlier. That’s slightly better than July’s 3.7% year-over-year increase but up from 2.8% before the Iran war began on Feb. 28. It was 2.5% when Trump was inaugurated in January 2025.

The government issues its September PCE data Thursday.

The view of the current labor market improved from September, though the employment landscape has not.

The percentage of respondents that said jobs were “plentiful” rose from 24.3% in September, to 26.7% this month. The percentage of those saying jobs were “hard to get” remained at 21.4%.

U.S. employers added a disappointing 29,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%. Economists had expected September payrolls to come in around 90,000.

Hiring dropped from a downwardly revised 133,000 in August and Labor Department revisions also shaved 60,000 jobs off combined July and August payrolls.

Inflation has dominated conversations this year in business and households and meager pay raises have made rising prices more painful for many. Average hourly wages are not keeping pace with inflation, rising just 3% last month from a year earlier, the smallest year-over-year gain since May 2021.