Confidence among U.S. consumers sank to a 26-year low in March as the labor market continued to deteriorate and gasoline prices rose, Bloomberg reported.

The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment decreased to 63.2 from 69.5 in March. The reading was below the lowest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey and the weakest since March 1982.

Consumer spending in the first half of the year will increase at the slowest rate in 17 years, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Economists had forecast the gauge would fall to 69, according to the median of 64 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 65 to 71.

The index of consumer expectations for six months from now, which more closely projects the direction of consumer spending, fell to 53.4, the lowest reading since November 1990, from 60.1 last month.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, will rise at an average annual pace of 0.5 percent in the first half of the year, economists surveyed by Bloomberg News earlier this month forecast. That would be the smallest two-quarter gain since purchases fell in the six months ended March 1991.

The economy will not expand at all during the first six months of this year, according to the Bloomberg survey taken from April 2 to April 8. A majority of those polled also projected that the world’s largest economy is, or will soon be, in a recession.

The Reuters/University of Michigan current conditions index, which reflects Americans’ perceptions of their financial situation and whether it’s a good time to make big-ticket purchases, dropped to 78.4, the lowest since January 1983, from 84.1 in March.