Americans are heading into the holidays feeling worse about jobs and inflation than they did this time last year, with consumer sentiment hovering near record lows.<\/p>\n
Though the University of Michigan\u2019s final reading of consumer sentiment for December <\/a>showed a modest improvement of 1.9 points from November, the overall index remains 28.5% lower than it was a year ago at 52.9. Last December, the reading was at 74.<\/p>\n “This is a very, very substantial decline over a relatively short period of time,” Joanne Hsu, the director of the survey of consumers, said in a Yahoo Finance video appearance Friday. “Consumers are loud and clear that they believe that the outlook for the economy has soured quite a bit since the beginning of the year.”<\/p>\n The majority of consumers, for example, expect unemployment to rise in the year ahead. Data published this week showed the country\u2019s jobless rate hit a four-year high of 4.6%<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n Learn more: Jobs, inflation, and the Fed: How they’re all related<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, the survey\u2019s gauge for economic conditions dropped to 50.4, down nearly 33% from a year ago. Still, consumer expectations improved in December compared to November.<\/p>\n \u201cBy and large, consumers, even though they think we’re a little bit better off than November, they still think we are much worse off than we were at the beginning of the year,\u201d Hsu said.<\/p>\n As for inflation, consumers expect price growth to reach a rate of 4.2% in the year ahead \u2014 the lowest reading in 11 months, the University of Michigan said. But it\u2019s well above the level of 3.3% seen in January.<\/p>\n Inflation data for November, also released this week, appeared to be skewed by the government shutdown<\/a> but showed that price growth cooled on an annual basis.<\/p>\n Related: What is inflation, and how does it affect you? <\/a><\/p>\n Emma Ockerman<\/a> is a reporter covering the economy and labor for Yahoo Finance. You can reach her at emma.ockerman@yahooinc.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n