Prices Feel 'Miserable'
"Miserable," said Kevin Lawn, 34, an electrician from Monrovia, Maryland. "That's how gas prices feel."
Lawn said his 13-year-old son will probably have to curtail his trips to competitive motocross races because of the price of gasoline. "This past weekend I spent $300 in fuel costs just to go to North Carolina," he said.
At the same time, an improving labor market is giving Americans cause for optimism. Payroll growth in February capped the best six months since 2006, and the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent, a three-year low.
A record 38 percent of those polled in the confidence survey said the most important economic development was an increase in employment. Asked about their view of the jobless rate in the year ahead, respondents were the most optimistic since 1984.
How Americans perceive the outlook varies by income. Households making less than $75,000 a year were less likely to say the economy will keep improving, while those with higher salaries were more optimistic.
Stock Gains
Stocks are also giving consumers a lift. The S&P 500 is on pace for the best first quarter since 1998, after rallying 12 percent this year through yesterday.
Don Johnson, vice president of U.S. sales operation for General Motors Co., said consumers are likely to withstand the rise in gasoline prices as the economy improves.
"American consumers and the overall economy are in much better shape than they were a year ago," Johnson said on a March 1 conference call. "Based on what we see in terms of pent-up demand and importantly the strength of the economy, we do not believe that short-term fluctuations in pump prices will curtail industry growth this year."