Consumers More Confident in June

The Consumer Confidence Index surged 7.1 points higher in June – its third consecutive monthly increase. The Index now stands at 81.4, up from 74.3 in May. The Present Situation Index that measures attitudes about current conditions, increased to 69.2 from 64.8. The Expectations Index that gauges attitudes about conditions six months from now improved to 89.5 from 80.6 last month.

“Consumer confidence … is now at its highest level since January 2008,” says Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, which creates the monthly Consumer Confidence Index. “Consumers are considerably more positive about current business and labor market conditions than they were at the beginning of the year. Expectations have also improved considerably over the past several months, suggesting that the pace of growth is unlikely to slow in the short-term, and may even moderately pick up.”

Consumers saying current business conditions are “good” held steady at 19.1 percent, while those saying business conditions are “bad” decreased to 24.9 percent from 26.0 percent. Consumers’ appraisal of the job market was also more positive. Those claiming jobs are “plentiful” increased to 11.7 percent from 9.9 percent, while those claiming jobs are “hard to get” edged up to 36.9 percent from 36.4 percent.

Consumers’ expectations regarding the short-term future improved again in June. Those expecting business conditions to be better over the next six months increased to 20.3 percent from 18.7 percent, while those expecting business conditions to worsen decreased to 11.4 percent from 12.2 percent.

Consumers’ outlook for the labor market was also more optimistic. Those anticipating more jobs in the months ahead improved to 19.6 percent from 16.3 percent, while those anticipating fewer jobs decreased to 16.1 percent from 20.0 percent. The proportion of consumers expecting their incomes to increase dipped slightly to 15.2 percent from 15.6 percent, while those expecting a decrease declined to 14.4 percent from 15.3 percent.

Nielsen conducts the monthly Consumer Confidence Survey, based on a probability-design random sample, for The Conference Board. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was June 13.

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