Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Confidence Continues to Rise

This week’s consumer confidence report for February was very strong, as the headline index came in at 130.8, its highest level since November 2000.  While consumer confidence had a hard time getting above its long-term average for much of the current expansion, it has now been above that level of 94.2 for 21 straight months.

One area of the economy where consumers are very confident is in employment: The percentage of consumers who consider jobs as being "plentiful" continues to be on the rise. In February’s report, it came in just under 40 percent, which was the highest level since April 2001.

The generational divide, which widened during the early part of the expansion with younger people being much more confident than older ones, is now roughly equal. Younger consumers (under 35) have seen little in the way of a confidence boost over the past year, while older consumers (over 55) have had their confidence surge.

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