U.S. consumers managed to push through a choppy first half of the year—from higher gasoline prices to uneven employment conditions—and still kept spending.
Fuel costs and the labor market remain households’ biggest worries, surveys show, yet shoppers continued to power the broader economy well beyond the gas station.
Now, with pain at the pump subsiding and unemployment still hovering near historic lows, the question is whether the second half will offer consumers a smoother ride.
Employment Ups and Downs
The United States kicked off 2026 on a high note by adding 160,000 new jobs in January. A month later, the labor market reversed virtually all of those employment gains. This resulted in almost no payroll growth in the first two months of the year….