Consumer confidence among Floridians Level in May

Consumer confidence among Floridians remained flat in May at 68. Among the five components two declined, one increased and two remained unchanged.

1. Perceptions of personal finances now compared to a year ago fell four points to 52.

2. Perceptions of personal finances a year from now increased three points to 76.

3. Expectations of national economic conditions over the next year were unchanged at 66

4. Expectations of economic conditions over the next five years increased two points to 74.

5. Perceptions as to whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket consumer items fell a point to 74.

“While the overall consumer confidence index has declined steadily over the last several months and remained flat this month, there has been some uncharacteristic volatility in the individual components,” said Chris McCarty, the Survey Director. “We have also noticed an increase in the average age of our respondents over the past several months. In the past we have adjusted our results for the natural geographic underrepresentation of certain areas that is typical of surveys like ours. Recently we have become concerned about other demographic bias that is a consequence of cell phone only households not currently represented in our sample. When we adjust our results for age bias based upon the recent Census data on age groups in Florida, our results come out somewhat differently, particularly for some of the five sub-components.”

Survey information courtesy of: Bureau of Economic and Business Research UF Survey Research Center