Friday, March 23, 2012

Confidence Reaches Positive Territory

Consumer confidence has been growing in recent months, but in large part that's simply because it had been beaten down for so long. It's been a very long time since we could say that the American consumer was actually confident about the economy - until now. Every month, Bloomberg News surveys people on the question of whether the economy is getting better, getting worse, or staying the same. The gauge finally climbed into positive territory in March, reaching a 1. It had been at negative 7 in February, and negative 45 as recently as October.

All in all, that's the most optimism Americans have felt since 2004. Thirty-four percent of those surveyed said the economy was improving, which is the highest that figure has been since January 2004.

A big part of that is that the unemployment situation continues to improve. After the monthly employment report showed that we added 227,000 new jobs in February, the weekly numbers have continued to be strong. New jobless claims for last week were just 348,000 - the lowest that figure has been since February 2008.

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