Recent positive economic news wasn’t enough to curb American
consumer pessimism, according to a survey conducted by The StrategyOne Annual
Holiday Shopping Index.

The index found that 79 percent believe the U.S. remains in
a recession; only 10 percent rate the economy as excellent or good; and just 8 percent think the economy will be much better by next year.

Thirty-nine percent of consumers are concerned enough about
the economy that they are planning to spend less during the holidays than they
did last year. Another 52 percent said they were uncertain about the future and
planned to keep their spending in line with last year’s holiday spending. Thirty-six
percent thought spending a lot of money on gifts was in bad taste this year
with so many people still out of work.

StrategyOne conducted 1,072 online interviews among a
representative sampling of Americans between Nov. 22- 23. The margin of
sampling error at the 95 percent level of confidence is = +/- 3.14 percent overall.

JCK