Consumers Expect Finances To Remain Same Or Improve

—A majority of Arkansas consumers expects their personal financial situations to improve or remain the same in 2015. Their level of optimism is higher than overall regional expectations. At the same time, they are less optimistic about future business conditions than the overall region. These observations are found in results from the second phase of the Arvest Consumer Sentiment Survey released at the beginning of the year.

In Arkansas, 52 percent of consumers expect their personal financial situation to remain the same over the next 12 months, while 28 percent expect it to be better over the same period. Only 20 percent expect their personal financial situation to be worse than it is currently.

However, when looking at expectations of business conditions, Arkansans were less optimistic than their neighboring states. Only 22 percent of Arkansas consumers expect business conditions to be favorable in the next year, compared with 30 percent of consumers in Missouri and 32 percent in Oklahoma. This trend continued when looking at expectations over the next five years, with 33 percent of Arkansas consumers expecting positive business conditions compared with 36 percent in Missouri and 41 percent in Oklahoma. This long-term pessimism is also reflected in Arkansas consumers’ expectations of widespread unemployment over the next five years, with 61 percent of Arkansans expecting widespread unemployment compared with 57 percent in Missouri and 53 percent in Oklahoma.

The Arvest Consumer Sentiment Survey is conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The University of Oklahoma’s Public Opinion Learning Laboratory conducted the 1,200 phone surveys.

In discussing the results, Kathy Deck, CBER director and lead economist for the survey, said, “Our first consumer sentiment survey results show us that Arkansans are generally positive about their own future financial prospects, but have deep worries about the trajectory of the overall economy. As an economist, I have one eye on the improving employment situation in the state and one eye on the declining labor force to help explain why consumers feel the way they do. For those who are employed in Arkansas, conditions are clearly improving, but there is reasonable nervousness about the people who have had to retire early or who are not getting on the career track that they anticipated.”

Arvest Bank’s sponsorship of this survey is due to its desire to provide beneficial data for its customers and communities.

The data provides a reading of how consumers are feeling about the economy in the states where the bank operates.