Retailers’ slowest earnings growth since the last recession has them bracing for a weakened second half as the U.S. economy leaves consumers confronting the prospect of losing their jobs and a volatile stock market, Bloomberg reported.

Second-quarter earnings per share for 43 retailers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained an average of 11 percent, the smallest increase in eight quarters, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profits rallied 71 percent on average in last year’s second quarter and declined 2.2 percent in the three months through June 2009, when an 18-month recession ended.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its lower-income consumers are trading down to lower-priced brands and smaller purchases to stretch their paychecks. Wealthier shoppers may retreat from luxury purchases as the stock market falls, analysts said.

“There are a lot of clouds on the horizon,” said Bernard Sosnick, an analyst at Gilford Securities Inc. in New York. “Consumer confidence is heavily influenced by outside factors such as the stock market and political uncertainty and all the things that made headlines.”

Confidence among consumers in August fell to the lowest level since May 1980, according to a survey from Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan.