Consumers grew more optimistic about the U.S. economy heading into the contentious presidential election even as job openings hit multi-year lows, according to separate reports released Tuesday.
The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for October rose more than 11% to a reading of 138, its biggest one-month acceleration since March 2021.
"Views on the current availability of jobs rebounded after several months of weakness, potentially reflecting better labor market data."
The drop in openings took the ratio of job vacancies to available workers below 1.1 to 1.
Though the openings level moved lower, hires rose 123,000 on the month.
Persons:
Dow Jones, Dana Peterson
Organizations:
Labor
Locations:
U.S