California consumer confidence falls to lowest since December 2020

California consumers haven t been this skittish since the pandemic era s business restrictions over four years ago My trusty spreadsheet when looking at April s results for the Conference Board s consumer confidence indexes uncovered statewide optimism down since October just before Electoral contest Day This is the largest decline among the eight states tracked by these monthly measurements that are derived from a polling of shoppers Related Articles Numbers that matter from the first days of Trump s second term First days Trump promised to bring down grocery prices promptly Did he succeed California ranks No for housing costs in U S California Democrats will try again to slash high capacity bills Tariffs could cost the average American household per year Here s how to save for it Clearly Californians worry about economic policies from the Trump administration including exchange battles with other nations and promises of large-scale deportations Fears of a recession are now swirling as California s hiring rate plummets to a -year low And let s remember Californians decidedly voted against Donald Trump All those gyrations helped cut the Golden State s confidence to its lowest level since December a time when the financial system was rocked by coronavirus lockdowns This comes after statewide confidence fell in April to sit below its -year average Why worry For a state market system with a global focus the new administration s inwardly focused economic views aren t seen as good news Californians are very nervous about the future Consider the Conference Board s forward-looking expectations index for California It fell in April to a statistical valley that s below October and below average Californians also have growing concerns about in the current era s commercial sector The current conditions index fell in April the largest one-month drop in over four years That put this index down since the voting Still current conditions as view through this lens remain above average Not alone The drop in consumer confidence isn t a California quirk Nationally there s been a drop since October to a level that s below its average since and the worst since May Again it s the cloudy future U S expectations are off since the referendum to a low not seen since October and below average But there s certain faith in the ongoing business context The U S current conditions index is down only since the voting process and is still above average Geographically speaking Since the referendum confidence also dropped in six of the other seven states tracked Here s a look at those index swings ranked by their change in optimism from October New York drop in confidence over six months to below average Illinois drop to below average Texas drop to below average Florida drop to below average Pennsylvania drop to below average Ohio drop to above average And then there s Michigan where Trump s tariff policies are expected to hurt the state s big auto-related businesses Confidence there is up since the electoral process to above average Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group He can be reached at jlansner scng com