Consumer Confidence Drops Again In August

Consumer Confidence Index Declines In August

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index declined for the second month in a row, dropping from 91.7 in July to a current reading at 84.8, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 25) press release.

“Consumer Confidence declined in August for the second consecutive month,” The Conference Board’s Senior Director of Economic Indicators Lynn Franco said in the release. “The Present Situation Index decreased sharply, with consumers stating that both business and employment conditions had deteriorated over the past month.”

The board said that the Present Situation Index, which is a measure of the view of consumers on the commerce and labor market climate as it stands, dropped to 84.2 from 95.9. Additionally, the Expectations Index, which is a measure on how consumers view commerce, income and labor and other market factors over the short haul, fell to 85.2 from 88.9, the release stated.

The percentage of people who indicated that business conditions are “good” fell to 16.4 percent from 17.5 percent, according to the release. On the other hand, individuals who indicated that business conditions are “bad” rose to 43.6 percent from 38.9 percent.

Additionally, the proportion of consumers who indicated that employment positions were “plentiful” dropped to 21.5 percent from 22.3 percent, the release stated. And the proportion of individuals who indicated that employment positions are “hard to get” rose to 25.2 percent from 20.1 percent.

Nielsen runs the monthly Consumer Confidence Survey for The Conference Board, which is conducted with a random sample.

The Consumer Confidence Index, however, increased in June, but it was noted at the time that the index hadn’t returned to levels seen before the pandemic. The index reached 98.1 that month, which was higher than 85.9 in May.

The Present Situation Index was reported to be 86.2 in June, up from 68.4 in May. Additionally, the Expectations Index was 106 in June, which was higher than 97.6 in May.

As previously noted by PYMNTS in June, the average consumer anticipated that the pandemic would last up to February 2021. At the time, it was found that consumers were less concerned about the virus than when they were surveyed in the middle of April.