The paradox is obvious: classic indicators do not shout “recession” at all. The percentage of assessing the current condition of the economy as good or very good increased year -on -year from 38 to 44 percent, and inflation and unemployment are not high as for historical standards. Still Most respondents feel financial fragility today and fear at tomorrow, especially in terms of their own apartment and work safety.
In conversations with respondents, the same threads return: high costs of living, expensive loans and the feeling that Even solid income is not enoughto “jump” to the next level in the context of social status.
It's like a pandemic
The discrepancy between hard data and moods increases from the pandemic. Economists point out that after 2020, the relationship between indicators and sentiment broke up.
In the past The stock market has improved the moods, now it's not like that. Instead, fears of the future dominate: for the availability of apartments, the sense of investing in education, for the consequences of automation and artificial intelligence for the labor market.
Europeans do not use the concept of “American dream”, but worries sound familiar. In 2024, the level of optimism as to its own future – the most in groups 35–49 and 50–64 years, fell in the Eurofound study. Life costs remain the most important concernand difficulties with “ending at the end” more often apply to farms with low and medium income.
Added to this is a flat. Eurostat data say directly: Between 2010 A and KW. 2025, housing prices in the EU increased by 57.9 percent, and rents by 27.8 percent. Only in the first quarter of 2025 prices jumped year to year by 5.7 percent, and rent by 3.2 percent. In practice, more and more cities report that average income is not enough for rent or installment (too much fears that there will be no money for other things).
Inflation moods in the euro area are no longer warmed up as a year ago, but remain increased to the ECB. In July 2025, median inflation expectations for 12 months ahead amounted to 2.6 percent, and the perceived inflation for the last year remained at the level of 3.1 percent. This promotes consumer caution and inhibits the tendency to large expenses.
The image of Europe is not uniformly black
The spring Eurobarometer showed 66 percent optimists about the future of the Union as a political project, but When the question goes down to the wallets, the expectation “rather unchanged” prevails in an economic situation in the next 12 months. It is a mixture of faith in institutions with parallel uncertainty about the household budget.
In the background you can also see Generational pessimism, which is not only American. The global PEU study from the beginning of 2025 showed that in the median 57 percent respondents in 36 countries think that children will be financially worse than their parents – this also applies to many European countries. Such a climate promotes the narrative “hard work is not enough”, because if the social ladder seems blocked, the effort loses the promised prize.
Will it be like in the USA in Europe? It is already in many dimensions. Rising prices of apartments and rents, weakening personal optimism, long -lasting cost stress and cautious inflation expectations create a mixture that easily cools faith in promotion thanks to work. The difference is the institutional response: the first European Affordable Housing Plan is starting at the EU level, and the central bank maintains the path of disinflation with anchored expectations. However, if the prices of apartments continue to leave wages, everyday experience can overcome the indicators – exactly as it happens today in the USA.
What results from this for companies and decision -makers
Employees and consumers can be simultaneously “objectively” in a good situation and subjectively deeply uncertain. It explains Why does the demand for flexible forms of work, anti -inflationary benefits (housing subsidies, private healthcare, psychological support) and a financial security pillow are growing Instead of a bonus for “exciting projects”.
If European governments do not unlock the supply of apartments and do not relieve the cost barriers of young households, the narrative “work harder and you will come” will lose credibility also on this side of the Atlantic.
