Consumer Continues to Feel Good: But a little less so on the jobs market...

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Survey (one of three consumer sentiment surveys we track) for February was released this morning, and while the overall score missed expectations it was slightly higher than January's.

In a nutshell, while consumers are a little less satisfied with their present situation, they continue to view current overall conditions "quite favorably" and have relatively high short-term expectations.

The report did, however, suggest that folks are feeling a little less good about the jobs market.   emphasis mine...

"Those claiming business conditions are “good” declined from 40.0 percent to 38.6 percent, while those claiming business conditions are “bad” increased, from 10.4 percent to 11.9 percent. Consumers’ assessment of the job market also moderated from last month. Those saying jobs are “plentiful” decreased from 47.2 percent to 44.6 percent, while those claiming jobs are “hard to get” increased from 11.9 percent to 14.8 percent."

While I definitely wouldn't sound the alarm on the "jobs plentiful" or "jobs hard to get" sentiment just yet, it does jibe with what we've been reporting herein about the precipitous fall of late in job openings, and the percentage (75) of industries currently experiencing negative jobs growth.

The labor market is THE critical area we're keeping close tabs on these days...