U.S. consumer confidence fell to a
six-month low in September as the economy’s failure to generate
jobs raised questions about whether the expansion can be
sustained.
The New York-based Conference Board’s consumer confidence
index dropped to 76.8 in September, the lowest since the United States went
to war against Iraq in March, from a revised 81.7 in August. The
percentage of people who saw jobs as hard to get rose to 35.3
percent, the highest since December 1993.
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The drop in confidence pushed down stocks and sent the price
of the 10-year Treasury note falling about a full point. The pace
of firings picked up in late August as companies awaiting proof of
a sustained pickup kept cutting costs. The unemployment rate is
forecast to rise a tenth of a point to 6.2 percent when
September’s figures are released Friday.
“The most important thing of all is that my customer is
concerned about jobs, until you see unemployment going down and
people see their next-door neighbors finding a job,” Allen
Questrom, chief executive officer of J.C. Penney Co., the second-
largest U.S. department-store chain, said at an investors meeting
Monday in Lewisville, Texas.
The economy has lost jobs for seven consecutive months and
payrolls are forecast to have fallen by another 25,000 in
September, according to the median forecast of 64 economists
surveyed by Bloomberg News. The Labor Department will release the
employment report at 8:30 a.m. Washington time on Friday. The lack
of job creation has emerged as a main issue in the campaign as
rivals seek to unseat President George W. Bush next year.
Job losses have been greatest in manufacturing, and a report
today showed hiring plans at Chicago-area factories fell as
production expanded at a slower pace in September, a survey of
purchasing managers showed.
Bloomberg News
