The Conference Board, an independent business membership and research group, revealed that consumer confidence in the US increased in August. The monthly Consumer Confidence Index which had dipped to 81.0 in July now stood at 81.5 in August.
In a statement, Conference Board Director of Economic Indicators Lynn Franco said the increase was a result of improving short-term expectations. "Consumers were moderately more upbeat about business, job and earning prospects. In fact, income expectations, which had declined sharply earlier this year with the payroll tax hike, have rebounded to their highest level in two and a half years," she said.
The assessment of consumers of current conditions in the business and labor markets, however, were not as favorable compared to last month. Only 18.4% said that business conditions were "good" compared to the 20.8% last month. Those who said that business conditions were "bad" comprised 24.8%, a figure which was the same as the previous survey. There were 11.4% of those surveyed who claimed that jobs were "plentiful." This was a decrease from last month's 12.3%. However, those who claimed that jobs were "hard to get" decreased to 33.0% from the previous survey's 35.2%.
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