Consumer Confidence Improves

November 25, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on November 2008 Some good news: The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index improved slightly in November, up 6.1 points to 44.9. The flip side is that there was nowhere to go but up, since the index hit a record low of 38.8 in October (1985=100).

The Present Situation Index slipped to 42.2 from 43.5 last month, and the Expectations Index increased to 46.7 from 35.7 in October.

Consumer plans for buying big-ticket items in the next six months were down from October levels, with 1.9 percent planning on purchasing a home, off from 2.6 percent in October; 3.7 percent expecting to buy an automobile, down from 4.5 percent last month; and 23.8 percent anticipating a major appliance purchase, down from 26.5 percent in October.

Consumers’ appraisal of current conditions deteriorated further in November, with 40.3 percent saying business conditions were “bad,” up from 37.1 percent in October. Just under 10 percent said conditions were “good,” up from 9.4 percent last month, with the balance citing conditions as “normal.”

The employment situation also concerned more consumers, as 37.2 percent in November said jobs were “hard to get,” up from 36.6 percent last month. Only 8.8 percent said jobs were “plentiful,” down slightly from October’s 9 percent with the balance in both months saying jobs were “not so plentiful.”

In a near perfect reversal of last month, regional consumer confidence improved in all but one of the nine regions. Only the West South Central region reported a decrease in confidence, dropping to 63.2 in November from 77 in October.

“The persistent declines in the Present Situation Index suggest that the economy has weakened further in the final months of this year,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “Inflation expectations, which have been at historically high levels in recent months, subsided considerably as a result of fall gas prices. But, despite the improvement in the Expectations Index this month, consumers remain extremely pessimistic and the possibility that economic growth will improve in the first half of 2009 remains highly unlikely.”

The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The cutoff date for November’s preliminary results was Nov. 18.