Conference Board: Consumer Confidence Rises after Soft July

Consumer confidence rebounded in August after July’s decline, rising 10.5 points on the month to 101.5, according to The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index.

The Present Situation Index – a measure of respondents’ appraisal of current business and employment conditions, grew 11.1 points to 115.1 in August, while the Expectations Index – a measure of business, employment and total family income expectations in the next six months, grew 10.2 points to 92.5.

“Consumers’ assessment of current conditions was considerably more upbeat, primarily due to a more favorable appraisal of the labor market,” noted Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “The uncertainty expressed last month about the short term outlook has dissipated and consumers are once again feeling optimistic about the near future.”

Outlook for the labor market was more positive in August, as respondents anticipating more jobs in the coming months grew from 13.7 percent to 14.6 percent in July, while those anticipating fewer jobs fell to 13.6 percent from 19.0 percent. Income expectations declined in August, with 16.2 percent of consumers expecting their incomes to increase, down from 17.0 percent last month, while those expecting their incomes to decline rose from 10.0 percent to 11.3 percent.

The outlook for business conditions was mixed as respondents saying business conditions are “good” decreased slightly from 23.4 percent to 23.2 percent in July, while those saying business conditions are “bad” marginally declined from 18.2 percent to 17.6 percent.

Read the release.