Biggums Watch: Less Jobs and Less Confident

Once again, the latest stats show that jobs are scarce and believe it not, Americans don't feel like spending.  Biggums' of the world are picking up steam and the major equities continue their fall today.  The Conference Board stated today that those claiming jobs are hard to get rose from 47% to 49.6%.  More rocks please.

One measure of consumer confidence fell in October for the second consecutive month on concerns about jobs and earnings.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, based on surveys of 5,000 U.S. households, showed that consumers are not optimistic about current economic conditions, expectations for the next six months and the outlook for jobs and wages.

“Consumers’ assessment of present-day conditions has grown less favorable, with labor market conditions playing a major role in this grimmer assessment,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center. “Consumers also remain quite pessimistic about their future earnings, a sentiment that will likely constrain spending during the holidays.”

The proportion of surveyed consumers who think current business conditions are bad rose from 46.3 percent in September to 47.1 percent. Those claiming jobs are hard to get rose from 47 percent to 49.6 percent. Those expecting more jobs in the months ahead fell to 16,3 percent, and consumers expecting a pay raise fell to 10.3 percent.

SOURCE: http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2009/10/26/daily17.html