The Economy Is Booming. Why Does It Feel Like a Bust?

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:05)
The US is living through an unusual economic situation right now, a kind of split-screen reality.

**Harriet Torry** (0:14)
I think for an average person, the economy feels weaker than it actually is.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:21)
The country is now in the throes of the highest inflation it's seen in three years, and people are feeling it. Last month, polling from the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment is at its lowest point in more than 70 years.

**Harriet Torry** (0:36)
So I think we all just feel that prices have risen a lot, you know.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:40)
Our colleague Harriet Torry covers the economy, and she's experienced for herself what she's been reporting on, like when she's at the gas station.

**Harriet Torry** (0:50)
It definitely cost me a lot more to fill up my Subaru than it did a few months ago.

**Jessica Mendoza** (0:56)
Or at a local shop, buying a $7 candy bar.

**Harriet Torry** (0:59)
Hi, can I get a bar of the Duvai chocolate, please? Okay, thanks a lot.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:05)
Or when she was at the supermarket the other day, picking up dinner.

**Harriet Torry** (1:08)
Hi, can we get a large pepperoni pizza, please? Yeah, pepperoni as well.
At the grocery store, I personally just find myself looking for deals a lot more, and I managed to spend $100 even though I only left the store with a pretty small bag of groceries.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:27)
Ouch, how did that feel?

**Harriet Torry** (1:30)
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty depressing.

**Jessica Mendoza** (1:37)
But then there's the other side of the split screen, economic metrics that seem to tell a very different story.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:45)
The US economy delivered a surprisingly strong jobs report in May.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:49)
Wall Street's main indexes rallied on Monday. The unemployment rate, drum roll please, 4.3. That is a very, very nice historically low rate.

**Harriet Torry** (2:00)
There was a disconnect between the very strong economy and the economy's growth and people's very negative perception of the economy.
I think the central mystery of this economy is that we have a boomy stock market, strong job creation, GDP growth that seems to be perfectly decent, and yet people feel really terrible about the economy. How is it that sentiment is so low when the economy by so many measures seems to be totally fine?

**Jessica Mendoza** (2:36)
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Wednesday, June 17th.
Coming up on the show, the economic boom that feels like a bust.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:05)
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**Jessica Mendoza** (4:14)
If you look at a lot of the data coming out about the economy right now, the US is on pretty solid ground. Take, for example, the jobs report, the monthly report that tracks how many people are getting hired and how many people are out of work.

**Harriet Torry** (4:28)
Yeah, so the jobs report for me was really strong, much stronger than expectations, because a lot of what we saw in the past couple of years was that healthcare was really the only sector that was adding jobs at a steady pace.

**Jessica Mendoza** (4:46)
But now, more jobs are showing up in other industries too.

**Harriet Torry** (4:50)
So we saw very strong job gains in leisure and hospitality, and also a big increase in hiring in local government. Some economists said that was probably due to the World Cup. But also, just heading into the summer months, places seem to be staffing up, getting ready for higher demand.
It seemed to be a sign that the economy is starting to recover.

**Jessica Mendoza** (5:14)
Adding jobs is one way to grow the economy. Another way is to make workers more productive, as in produce goods and services more efficiently. And that's happening too.