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After a sharp decline in February, the Consumer Confidence Index remained largely unchanged in March, The Conference Board, a research organization, announced today. The March index stands at 26, up from 25.3 in February. The baseline for the index is 100. Research company TNS conducts the monthly Consumer Confidence survey of 5,000 randomly selected households. The cutoff date for this month's survey was March 24. "Consumer confidence was relatively unchanged in March, after reaching an all-time low in February," Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in the report. The percentage of respondents who said business conditions are "bad" increased to 51.1% from 50.5% who said so in February, while those claiming business conditions are "good" slightly decreased to 6.8% from 7% last month. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions will worsen over the next six months decreased to 39.1% from 40.7%, while those anticipating conditions to improve increased to 9.1% in March from 8.5% last month. The percentage of consumers anticipating fewer jobs in the months ahead decreased to 42.6% this month from 47% in February, while those expecting more jobs increased to 7.1% from 6.8%. The proportion of consumers expecting an increase in their incomes declined to 7.5% from 7.9%, according to the survey results. "Apprehension about the outlook for the economy, the labor market and earnings continues to weigh heavily on consumers' attitudes," Franco said. "Looking ahead, consumers remain extremely pessimistic about the short-term future and do not foresee a turnaround in economic conditions over the coming six months."
