Consumer Confidence Falls in February

he Conference Board said Tuesday its consumer confidence dropped to 87.3 in February, the lowest since October, from a revised 96.4 in January.

The fall in the index was the largest since February 2003, the month before the start of the war with Iraq, as people became more concerned about job and income prospects, the board said.

The index is a prognosticator of consumer spending. When people are feeling confident about the economy, they are more likely to spend money, which increases the demand for trucking services.

The component of the index that tracks consumers' expectations for the next six months fell to 96.8 from 107.8. A gauge of optimism about the present situation also dropped, to 73.1 this month from 79.4 in January.

The last time both of these indexes fell in the same month was September, the board said.

The board also said the percentage of people who saw jobs as hard to get increased to 32.1% from 31.6%. In addition, the proportion who saw jobs as plentiful declined to 11.8% this month, compared with 12.3% in January.

The Conference Board bases its index on a survey of 5,000 households about general economic conditions, their employment prospects and spending plans.

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