As Congress prepares to leave Washington for the up-coming elections, consumers are giving them a no confidence vote on the economy. When it comes to attitudes about the economy, Americans continue to see the glass as continuing to empty.
The Conference Board, a New York-based research group that compiles the Consumer Confidence Index, said Tuesday the index fell to 48.5 in September, down from August’s negatively revised level of 53.2.
The September reading was far worse than the 52.0 expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, and is the lowest reading since February 2010.
“September’s pull-back in confidence was due to less favorable business and labor-market conditions, coupled with a more pessimistic short-term outlook,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “Overall, consumers’ confidence in the state of the economy remains quite grim.”
The number of consumers calling business conditions “bad” outweighed those saying conditions are “good” by nearly 6 to 1. Likewise, those saying jobs are “hard to get” far exceeded those saying jobs are “plentiful.”
With no movement in Congress on the issue of January tax increases, the number of consumers with low expectations about both future employment prospects and business conditions, also increased. This has forced the index down far below 90, the indicator of a stable economy.
