American consumers’ confidence remains steady

CEBR director Scott Corfe said: “The Brexit vote has had a very real impact on consumers and the effects of this could start to be felt in the real economy in the next couple of months”.

Consumers were feeling a bit more optimistic than expected in July, as a key economic indicator held gains from June, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index was essentially unchanged in July, dipping to 97.3 from a revised 97.4 in June.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index is conducted by Nielsen Holdings (NYSE: NLSN), a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy. The Present Situation Index (measuring consumer assessment of business conditions today) increased from 116.6 to 118.3, while the Expectations Index (measuring assessment of a short-term outlook) edged down to 83.3 from 84.6 in June.

The survey’s so-called labour market differential, which closely correlates to the jobless rate in the employment report, improved this month after slipping in June. Consumers’ appraisal of the labor market was little changed from last month. The share of respondents saying jobs were “plentiful” fell slightly to 23%, but so did the share who said jobs were “hard to get”, to 22.3%. But Franco added that consumers remain “cautiously optimistic about growth in the near-term”. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months decreased from 16.6% to 15.9%, while those expecting business conditions to worsen increased from 11.2% to 12.3%, it said.

Attitudes toward the current labor market were relatively steady, and the outlook for future job growth was marginally more favorable, The Conference Board said.

Plus, the report notes that the proportion of those expecting more jobs in the months ahead was essentially unchaged at 14.0%, while those anticipating less jobs dropped to 17.0% from 17.7%.