Consumers more confident about economy in August

Consumers more confident about economy in August

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey rebounded in August from its July drop, mainly because of a more favorable appraisal of the labor market. Those saying jobs are –plentiful” increased from 19.9 percent to 21.9 percent, and those who said jobs are –hard to get” dropped from 27.4 percent to 21.9 percent.

Consumersê optimism about the short-term outlook also improved, with slightly more expecting business conditions to improve in the next six months and a greater drop in the percent expecting business conditions to worsen.

Consumersêoutlook for the labor market was also more upbeat. The percent of those anticipating more jobs in the coming months increased, while those anticipating fewer jobs decreased sharply from 19 percent to 13.6 percent. But income expectations were little improved.