Conflicting Data on Consumer Communications Spending

Though surveys taken in 2009 and 2010 seem to indicate that consumers were cutting back on communications and multi-channel video entertainment spending, other data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis suggests that did not happen; in fact, such spending increased between the start of 2008 and the middle of 2010, for example.

Since the recession started in the fourth quarter of 2007, U.S. consumers have apparently been cutting back on their spending. But Bureau of Economic Analysis data suggests that consumers have been cutting more in some areas than others, and actually have increased spending on many communications services.

BEA show aggregate personal consumption expenditures were up 2.9 percent, or $285 billion, between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the end of the second quarter of 2010, for example.

Mobile device spending was up almost 17 percent since the fourth quarter of 2007. And spending on communications and multichannel video services was up by five percent.

Americans were spending a little bit less on clothing and hotels; a lot less on foreign travel, video and audio equipment (think televisions), and furniture. The big drop came in motor vehicles and associated goods and services, like gasoline. Spending on household furnishings dropped six percent.

Spending on international travel dropped 7.4 percent; purchases of audio and visual equipment dropped 8.4 percent; spending on motor vehicles declined 16 percent; while spending on moving, freight and storage services dropped nearly 20 percent.

Spending on pets increased 14.4 percent. Spending for child care increased 13 percent. Health care spending grew 11 percent while education spending grew 13 percent.

http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/where-americans-are-spending-more/