Consumer Confidence Highest Since Sept. '08

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Consumer confidence made another dramatic leap ahead in May for the second month in a row. Last month, the Index stood at 54.9, up from 40.8 in April, The Conference Board reported.

The Expectations Index rose to 72.3 from 51.0 in April.

"After two months of improvements, the Consumer Confidence Index is now at its highest point in eight months [when it was 61.4]," said Lynn France, director of The Conference Board Research Center.

"Continued gains in the Present Situation Index indicate that current conditions have moderately improved, and growth in the second quarter is likely to be less negative than in the first," she added. "Looking ahead, consumers are considerably less pessimistic than they were earlier this year, and expectations are that business conditions, the labor market and incomes will improve in the coming months."

Consumers' assessment of the job market was more favorable, with those claiming jobs are hard to find falling to 44.7% from 46.6% in April, and those saying jobs are "plentiful" rising to 5.7% from 4.9%. However, those claiming that business conditions are bad rose to 45.3% from 44.9% in April.