Research Firms Says Consumers Largely Pessimistic

New York, NY, June 21, 2010--The latest information from two TNS research studies show consumer perceptions of the U.S. economy remain predominantly negative, in contrast to information in some recent consumer confidence reports.

According to the studies, U.S. consumers' perception of the economy has not improved since December of 2009, with 66% feeling negative about the state of the economy.  Despite being slightly more optimistic, business executives, with revenues between $3 million and $2 billion, are also most likely to hold a negative perception of the economy.

According to these studies, a vast majority of consumers (69%) strongly anticipate that they will be cutting their personal spending over the next six months. This is a slight increase from the reading in December 2009.

"We still see consumers being apprehensive about the future of the economy," said Glenn Staada, vice president of TNS,

"Despite some news recently that consumer confidence is increasing, we still see a high level of anxiety around the economy and the consumer's personal household situation to open ones wallet is high." 

The near-term outlook doesn't look good either. Forty percent (40%) of consumers and 24% of businesses feel the economic landscape will get worse over the next six months. This is in contrast to the findings in December 2009 when nearly 34% of businesses thought the economy was to get better, not worse.

 Consistent with this pessimistic consumer view and the tightness of credit markets, nearly all businesses remain in cost containment mode. Ninety-two (92%) percent of businesses will continue to aggressively seek ways to cut costs in the next six months, with 54% saying this includes labor costs.

The consumer findings are based on TNS Market Effectiveness in U.S. Consumer Banking research program,  a multi-client research offering that is based on over 12,000 interviews completed annually among a nationally representative sample of American banking consumers.