CHICAGO — The housing market and stocks may be looking up, but Americans just can’t shake their job worries.
In a sign that talk of an economic recovery has yet to soothe a recession- battered nation, consumer confidence fell in October.
For stores, the reading is reason to worry about holiday sales.
In a separate reading, the Conference Board reported that shoppers’ sentiments about the state of the economy are the gloomiest in nearly three decades. Americans reported they plan to cut back on spending, in large part because they don’t trust the job market.
The unemployment rate is just under 10 percent, and economists say it could hit 10.5 percent next year.
“It’s hard to get a job, and the ones that are out there don’t pay enough,” said Mitch Hicks, 33, of Hillsboro, Ore., who lost his cabinet-company job a year ago and is struggling to find work.
The index of consumer confidence fell to 47.7 in October from 53.4 in September. Economists were expecting a small decline to 53.1. It takes a reading of 90 to indicate an economy on solid footing, 100 or more to indicate growth.
Nearly half the 5,000 households surveyed said jobs were hard to get, and about one in four said they expected fewer available jobs in coming months.
“We’ve gone down so far that it’s kind of like when you fall into a deep hole and you’re down 20 feet and you climb up by 3 feet,” said Brian Bethune, an economist at IHS Global Insight. The Associated Press
