Consumer confidence surprisingly fell in December, hurt by rising fears about the jobs market, according to a report released in late December by a private industry group.
The report shows just how unsure consumers are about their prospects in the shaky economy considering the report showed a healthy uptick just one month ago.
The Conference Board reported that its index of consumer attitudes dropped to 52.5 in the month from an upwardly revised 54.3 in November. A median of forecasts from analysts polled by Reuters was a reading of 56.0.
The expectations index declined to 71.9 in December from 73.6 in November. The present situation index fell to 23.5 from 25.4.
Consumers' labor market assessment worsened. The "jobs hard to get" index rose, with 46.8% of consumers surveyed reporting such difficulty in December compared with 46.3% who did the previous month, while the "jobs plentiful" index dropped, with 3.9% of respondents citing that opinion compared with 4.3% who did in November.
What do you think about this? Send us your feedback.
