WASHINGTON – Consumer confidence is starting the year at another historic low, an indication that the public doesn't see the economy improving in the near future.
The Conference Board reported today that the confidence level is 37.6, down from 38.6 in December and 44.9 in November.
The New York City-based research organization's survey of 5,000 families also indicated that the Present Situation Index, which measures consumer assessment on current conditions, is 29.9, compared with 30.2 in December
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The Expectations Index is 43, compared to 44.2 last month.
"The Consumer Confidence Index continues to hover at all-time lows (Index began in 1967) and it appears that consumers have begun the New Year with the same degree of pessimism that they exhibited in the final months of 2008," Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board's Consumer Research Center said in a statement. "Looking ahead, consumers remain quite pessimistic about the state of the economy and about their earnings. And, until we begin to see considerable improvements in the Expectations Index, we can't say that the worst of times are behind us."
Consumers characterizing business conditions as "bad" increased to 47.9% from 45.9% while those saying business conditions are "good" declined from 7.7% to 6.4%.
The percentage of consumers who said jobs are "hard to get" dropped slightly to 41.1% from 41.5% last month. Those that said jobs are "plentiful" increased from 6.5% in December to 7.2%.
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