The Dow may just have crossed 30,000, but U.S. consumers are growing gloomier as a dark coronavirus winter settles in, as shown in a new Consumer Confidence Survey report released by The Conference Board Tuesday (Nov. 24).
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell in November after holding steady in October, the long-established nonprofit think tank reported. The index fell from 101.4 in October to 96.1, with the expectations segment of the index seeing one of the steepest declines, falling from 98.2 in October to 89.5 in November.
The expectations index measures consumers’ short-term outlook on labor market business and income conditions.
Still, the results may have been dragged down by pessimism in early November over the outlook for finally getting COVID-19 under control, with news about the recent vaccine breakthroughs just starting to emerge and relatively fresh.
The cutoff date for the preliminary results for The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey was Nov. 13.
In an October survey by PYMNTS, well before the news of vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer with well over 90 percent effectiveness, a PYMNTS survey found consumers bracing for a 400-day wait — more than a year — before being able to return to normal work and life routines.
The recent survey results suggest that growth has begun to slow in the last quarter of the year, said Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, in a press release.
“Consumer confidence declined in November, after remaining virtually flat in October,” Franco said. “Consumers' assessment of present-day conditions held steady, though consumers noted a moderation in business conditions, suggesting growth has slowed in Q4. Heading into 2021, consumers do not foresee the economy, nor the labor market, gaining strength. In addition, the resurgence of COVID-19 is further increasing uncertainty and exacerbating concerns about the outlook.”
Still, perceptions about jobs — and how easy or hard they are to come by — remained unchanged in November.
Just 26.7 percent of those surveyed said jobs are “plentiful” while 19.5 percent report employment is “hard to get,” The Conference Board reports.
