U.S. Consumer Confidence Index hits 8-month high

The Associated Press reports the United States Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) rose in January to the greatest level experts have seen within the past eight months. A rise from 53.3 in Dec. to 60.6 in January was observed within the CCI by the Conference Board, a global non-profit that monitors economic performance. Lower joblessness and improving business climate are factors that are believed to have led to an uptick in consumer investing and saving habits. Individuals even appear to be more comfortable taking out payday loans when in need of them, because they’re more confident their job will nevertheless be around on their next payday. Article resource – Consumer Confidence Index at highest level in eight months by MoneyBlogNewz.

It might not be a healthy Consumer Confidence Index although it’s much better

While economists are encouraged by the CCI's rise to 60.6, that rate is still far below the 90 that indicates at least semi-healthy consumer confidence in investing and use of short-term credit like payday loans. The way people feel about the U.S. economy is measured by the Consumer Confidence Index. The blog, Banker Notes, explained that 5,000 households are surveyed for this figure. Since December 2007, the CCI has not been over 90.

The greatest mark in the CCI before the 60.6 in January was in May 2010 with a 62.7 mark. This was when everybody though the United States economy was about to go back to normal. Yet the summer was sluggish economically, and the CCI flagged. Unemployment surged to the greatest levels seen in the United States since the 1930s, and joblessness amounts still have not regained their footing since they hit bottom in June 2009.

Desire of additional work

There was a report from the National Association for Business Economics that showed companies at a 12 year high when it comes to plans to hire. This is what the AP reports. This coincides somewhat with the reaction customers gave to a Conference Board survey concerning the state of the career industry, as the percentage of respondents who feel work are too hard to come by is down to 43.4 percent. There has been a decrease shown from Dec.. The drop was about 3 percent. There was a rise from 14.2 percent to 16 percent from Dec. to Jan of the percentage of those who plan on seeing additional work accessible in the next six months in the Conference Board survey.

Unemployment falls while investing goes up for consumers

Consumer investing really did well after the 2010 holiday shopping season. There was a faster increase in sales than there had been in six years being seen with it. There is designed to be more spending with the new Social Security tax cuts also. With only 103,000 new jobs created within the U.S., the unemployment still went down from November to Dec. 0.4 percent.

Citations

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/41251437/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/?ns=business-eye_on_the_economy&from=toolbar

Banker Notes

bankernotes.blogspot.com/2006/10/financial-term-glossary.html

Plunkett Research on U.S. retail

youtube.com/watch?v=FrgCCfVqPSs