A slight increase in consumer confidence doesn’t change ubiquitous pessimism

The monthly Conference Board index reported on Tuesday that consumer confidence showed a slight increase in March from low records of February. The March consumer confidence index rose to 26 from an upwardly revised 25.3 in February, reports MarketWatch.

Still as noted by Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center, concerns about ‘the economy, the labor market and earnings continues to weigh heavily on consumers' attitudes’ and thus consumers on the whole remain pessimistic about the short-term future.

On Friday the government is to report on nonfarm payrolls for March and according to some economists’ forecasts the number of job losses will likely account for 700,000 with an unemployment rate to stand for 8.5%.

According to some reports consumers’ views of current conditions dropped with the number of people who believe that jobs are "hard to get" rising to 48.7% from 46.9%. Business conditions were marked as bad by 51.1% consumers against 50.5% last month.

Meantime, the number of those expecting fewer jobs within the nearest six months decreased from 47% to 42.6%. Those expecting "worse" business conditions fell to 39.1% from 40.7%.

Those with plans to buy an automobile within six months fell to 3.9% from 4.7%. Those with plans to buy a home also dropped, to 2% from 2.3%. Those with plans to buy major appliances fell to 24% from 25%.

Consumers' 12-month inflation expectations remained at 5.9%.