Consumer confidence dropped a staggering 10 points to hit a fresh record low in February, according to a survey on Tuesday.
The U.S. Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to a new all-time low of 25.0 in February, following January's downwardly revised 37.4, which was the previous all-time low. Economists had expected the survey to fall to 35.0 in February.
The present situation component continued to fall to 21.2 from January's 29.9 reading, while the expectations component declined to 27.5 from 43.0 in January.
"Looking ahead, increasing concerns about business conditions, employment and earnings have further sapped confidence and driven expectations to their lowest level ever. In addition, inflation expectations, which had been easing over the past several months, have moderately picked up," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "All in all, not only do consumers feel overall economic conditions have grown more dire, but just as disconcerting, they anticipate no improvement in conditions over the next six months," she said.
One-year inflation expectations grew to 5.9% from the previous month's 5.6% reading. In June and July, the inflation index peaked at 7.7%.
The closely watched labour differential between jobs 'hard to get' and jobs 'plentiful' decreased to -43.4 in February from -33.9 in January. One year ago, the differential was 19.1.
Just 6.8% of participants said present labour conditions are good, while nearly 51.1% said conditions are bad.
Those anticipating business conditions to worsen over the next six months grew to 40.5% from 31.1%, while those expecting conditions to improve declined to 8.7% from 12.8% in January.
The outlook for the labour market was mixed compared to last month. The percentage of consumers anticipating fewer jobs in the months ahead fell to 47.8% from 51.8%, while those expecting more jobs fell to 4.4% from 7.1%. The proportion of consumers anticipating an increase in their incomes fell to 7.6% from 10.3%.
By Megan Ainscow and edited by Sarah Sussman
©CEP News Ltd. 2009