Survey shows an uptick in consumer confidence

The recession is still dragging employment down in Anchorage but job losses are slowing, and conventional wisdom among economists is that things will stabilize in 2019 and jobs will start to increase, slowly, in 2020. Anchorage Economic Develop-ment Corp. predicts a 0.5 percent employment gain in 2020 in the city, based on work by McDowell Group, a consulting firm. AEDC released its three-year forecast July 25. What was interesting in AEDC’s presentation, at a luncheon, is that Anchorage consumer confidence is rising. The overall “Consumer Optimism Index”, based on telephone surveys, was measured at 57.2 in the second quarter of the year, the highest it has been in three years, AEDC said at the luncheon. “An index score between 45 and 55 really means the respondent is ‘not sure;’ a score below 45 means the consumers are pessimistic, and above 55 means optimism,” AEDC’s CEO, Bill Popp, said. Based on that, a recession psychology seems to be lifting, which means consumers will be more willing to spend. That’s good news, since most of Southcentral Alaska’s economy is based on services, Popp said.