Australians are pessimistic about their jobs and the cost of living. Picture: Mike Keating Source: News Limited
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THE nation's confidence about employment and the cost of living has sunk to its lowest point since the end of 2008.
Australians are the most pessimistic they have been about the outlook for their jobs and cost of living since the beginning of the global financial crisis and world recession, The Australian reports.
Voters are facing the first half of next year with the grimmest outlook for their standard of living for the six months ahead since the end of 2008, when the world was in financial chaos.
According to a Newspoll survey of voters' prospects for their standard of living in the first half of next year, the number of people who think things will get worse in the next six months has jumped eight percentage points to 25 per cent - one in four.
In the middle of this year, only 17 per cent thought their standard of living in the second half of 2010 would "get worse" and 65 per cent thought things would stay the same. But a rise in official interest rates by the Reserve Bank on Melbourne Cup Day and the banks pushing mortgage rates above and beyond the official increase appears to have hit consumer confidence.
Consumers have also been hit with big rises in utility prices, especially for electricity and water.
In the past six months, the economic outlook in Europe has worsened with Greece and Ireland having to be bailed out by the EU and fears that Spain's economy is in a perilous state.
Before Christmas, retailers were warning that low consumer confidence had hit holiday shopping, and department stores feared they would have the worst Christmas shopping season in years. For the Gillard Government, hoping to become more positive next year, voters' fears about the first six months of 2011 could be politically crucial.
According to the Newspoll, taken on the weekend of December 3-5, the number of people who thought their outlook would improve through to June next year was steady overall on 18 per cent but there was a big drop among Labor supporters.
The number of Labor voters who thought their standard of living would improve dropped from 24 per cent to 16 per cent and those that thought it would remain the same dropped from 65 to 59 per cent.
Retailers banking on post-Christmas sales
According to the Australian Retailers Association, week-by-week tracking of retail trade during the Christmas period in the last week before Christmas showed more than 65 per cent of retailers were trading worse than at the same time last year.
ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said retailers were banking on a boost in sales during the final days leading into Christmas to lift their seasonal intake.
"These final days will be critical if retailers are to meet projections of $39.9 billion in national retail sales for the Christmas trading period," Mr Zimmerman said.
"By all accounts, this hasn't been a very joyous Christmas for retailers, who are slashing prices pre-Christmas just to get consumers in the door."
Although the Boxing Day crowds turned out yesterday, the surge is unlikely to compensate for one of the softest pre-Christmas retail periods in recent years.
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