Consumer Confidence Rebounds from August Low

Consumer confidence shot up this month, showing that consumers have a better view of current business conditions, the job market, and economy. Last month, consumer confidence dropped to a six-year low of 86.3 points, according to the National Association of Home Builders. September’s confidence level hit 101.8 points, the highest level since March and the largest monthly increase since April 2003. The number of consumers who see business conditions as bad fell by 5.9 points, but remains at 37.4%. Consumers seeing business conditions as good increased by 2.3 points to 18.3%.

Meanwhile, consumers’ assessment of the labor market was also favorable. The share of respondents reporting that jobs were “plentiful” increased by 1.5 percentage points, while those saw jobs as “hard to get” decreased by 3.6 percentage points.

Consumers were optimistic about the short-term outlook. The share of respondents expecting business conditions to improve increased from 29.8% to 37.1%, while those expecting business conditions to deteriorate fell from 20.7% to 15.8%. Similarly, expectations of employment over the next six months were favorable. The share of respondents expecting “more jobs” rose by 3.2 percentage points to 33.1%, while those anticipating “fewer jobs” declined by 5.6 percentage points to 15.6%.

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