October Sees Consumer Confidence Down
On Monday, October 30, the Conference Board, a private research group that measures economic indicators, released a report suggesting that in spite of the recent downward trend in gasoline prices that job worries caused consumer confidence in the economy to weaken for the month.

The consumer confidence index, which stood at 105.9 in September declined slightly to 105.4. Although the change was slight, economists had predicated the index would climb to 107.9.

In a prepared statement the director of the Conference Board's consumer research center, Lynn Franco, said, "October's dip in confidence was prompted by consumers' mixed assessment of present-day business conditions and a less favorable view of the job market. Consumers' short-term expectations posted a slight improvement, but the outlook for the labor market remains mixed."

Franco added, "Overall, October's readings continue to suggest a moderate pace of economic growth and more of the same for the first few months of 2007."

In data collected for the report, consumers who indicated they considered jobs to be "plentiful" declined to 25.8 percent down from 26.2 percent while those characterizing jobs as "hard to get" went up to 22 percent from the previous level of 20.9 percent in September.

Over the past year the Conference Board's consumer confidence index was at its highest point in April at 109.8 with the lowest posted reading in October 2005 in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita when the number was a weak 85.2.

As another indicator of consumer attitudes, however, the consumer comfort index, which had been at negative seven a week ago, rose to negative 3, an improvement of ten points in the last month and sixteen for the past two months.