Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: Consumer Sentiment Edges Higher

Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce:

September 20, 2021

Consumer sentiment edged up in September after a big fall in August. (Getty Images)

By Richard Lawson
CoStar News
 

Consumer Sentiment Edges Higher

Consumer sentiment ticked up in September after a sharp decline in August, according to a much-watched economic indicator.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, which has been produced since 1952 based on surveys, rose to a 71 reading in September from 70.3 in August. August’s reading was a sharp decline from July’s 81.2.

Richard Curtain, the director of surveys for the university, attributed that sharp decline to inflation concerns, small wage gains and slower declines in unemployment. Consumers grew concerned that the pandemic wasn’t ending as expected given the surge in new cases related to the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.

Such concern didn’t seem to translate poorly into retail sales. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that August retail sales increased from July.

September’s small gain still means that “consumers expected the least favorable economic prospects in more than a decade,” Curtain said in the latest report.

He noted that that “buying attitudes for household durables fell again in early September to a low reached only once before in 1980, and long-term economic prospects fell to a decade low.”

Record Container Ship Traffic Jam in LA

A record number of container ships are anchored or adrift in a traffic jam to get into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, essentially creating floating warehouses, according to an industry trade publication.

American Shipper reported that at least 65 loaded container ships are in San Pedro Bay waiting to unload in the ports. Of those, 23 can’t anchor because that space is full.

Warehouse, rail, trucking and terminals are all jammed up as they try to get containers and sent off to locations within the United States. The bottleneck has disrupted the supply chain for nearly all industries and businesses relying on products, parts and materials from Asia.

A surge in demand for everything from bicycles to furniture has overwhelmed production capacity that had been hampered by the pandemic and now is trying to catch up while a transportation network tries to keep up.

On Thursday, the L.A. and Long Beach ports had a record high of 92 ships either waiting or at the terminal, five times higher than the pre-pandemic norm.

Source:  CoStar Group, www.costar.com

This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.