NEW YORK, March 26 (UPI) -- The Conference Board said Tuesday consumer confidence in the nation's economy climbed during March to its highest level since August, lifted by improvements in business and labor market conditions.
The private research group said its index measuring consumer confidence, which uses 1985 as a base of 100, surged 15.2 percentage points to 110.2 during the month from a revised 95.0 in February, which the Board originally reported as 94.1.
Most economists on Wall Street were expecting confidence to rise to 98.0 during the month.
Consumer confidence hit an all-time high of 144.7 in May and sank to an 8-year low of 84.9 in November after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The March reading was the highest since confidence stood at 114.0 in August.
Economists watch the index because high confidence readings suggest consumers are in a mood to spend, and such spending accounts for about two-thirds of economic output.
The Board said the survey, which is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households, showed its present situation index jumped to 111.5 from 96.4 while its expectations index climbed to 109.3 from 94.0 a month earlier.
"Consumers' confidence has been bolstered by the improvement in business and labor market conditions," said Lynn Franco, Director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center.
"The latest gains are striking. The jump in the Present Situation Index is the largest gain experienced in 25 years, while the Expectations Index has not risen this sharply in nearly a decade. This new boom in confidence should translate into increased consumer spending and stronger economic growth ahead," Franco said.
The report showed consumers' appraisal of current conditions improved significantly in March.
Those rating business conditions as good rose to 20.7 percent from 17.6 percent. Consumers rating current business conditions as bad declined to 18.1 percent from 22.8 percent.
The report showed that consumers reporting jobs were plentiful rose to 20.6 percent from 18.2 percent while those claiming jobs were hard to get fell to 20.8 percent from 22.6 percent a month earlier.
The Board said consumers' expectations for the next six months are also more upbeat.
Consumers expecting an improvement in business conditions increased to 25.0 percent from 22.3 percent in February while those anticipating conditions to worsen declined to 6.3 percent from 11.1 percent.
The Board said the employment outlook also brightened.
Some 20.6 percent of all consumers expect more jobs to become available over the next six months, up from 18.3 percent last month. Those expecting fewer jobs fell to 13.6 percent from 19.5 percent.
The report showed that about 22 percent of those polled expect their incomes to increase, up from 20.5 percent in February.
