Economics
U.S. Economic Outlook Report: October 2021
Report summary
The U.S. economy emerged from delta variant-driven setbacks in consumer sentiment, spending and employment more resilient than it has following previous case surges. Confidence and spending have stabilized, and labor force participation improved in recent weeks. Looking forward, falling cases eliminates downward pressure on consumer confidence, but supply-chain bottlenecks continue to act as headwinds to the recovery, resulting in shortages and high prices and discouraging consumers from making purchases.
Key Takeaways
- Morning Consult’s Index of Consumer Sentiment stabilized over the past month as U.S. households were less affected by the most recent increase in COVID-19 cases than prior surges.
- While the delta variant delayed the employment recovery, the recent ebb in new cases has given way to renewed work force engagement.
- Fewer U.S. adults fell short of paying their monthly bills in August than in the prior month, and a higher share claimed to have enough savings to cover more than a month of basic expenses.
About the authors
John Leer leads Morning Consult’s global economic research, overseeing the company’s economic data collection, validation and analysis. He is an authority on the effects of consumer preferences, expectations and experiences on purchasing patterns, prices and employment.
John continues to advance scholarship in the field of economics, recently partnering with researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland to design a new approach to measuring consumers’ inflation expectations.
This novel approach, now known as the Indirect Consumer Inflation Expectations measure, leverages Morning Consult’s high-frequency survey data to capture unique insights into consumers’ expectations for future inflation.
Prior to Morning Consult, John worked for Promontory Financial Group, offering strategic solutions to financial services firms on matters including credit risk modeling and management, corporate governance, and compliance risk management.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and philosophy with honors from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in economics and management studies (MEMS) from Humboldt University in Berlin.
His analysis has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Economist and more.
Follow him on Twitter @JohnCLeer. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected]
Kayla Bruun is a senior economist at decision intelligence company Morning Consult, where she analyzes consumer spending, inflation and household finance trends, leveraging the company’s proprietary high-frequency data.
Prior to joining Morning Consult, Kayla was a key member of the corporate strategy team at telecommunications company SES, where she produced market intelligence and industry analysis of mobility markets.
Kayla also served as an economist at IHS Markit, where she covered global services industries, provided price forecasts, produced written analyses and served as a subject-matter expert on client-facing consulting projects.
Kayla earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Emory University and an MBA with a certificate in nonmarket strategy from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Follow her on Twitter @KaylaBruun. For speaking opportunities and booking requests, please email [email protected]
Jesse Wheeler previously worked at Morning Consult as a senior economist.
