Consumer confidence surged in February, with the Conference Board reading rising from 61.5 in January to 70.8, exceeding not only the forecast level of 63 from the median of the Bloomberg survey of 77 economists, but surpassing even the most optimistic forecast in the group, which ranged from 58-67.6.

Both components of the Index contributed to this overall increase with the Present Situation Index rising from 38.8 to 45, while the Expectations Index climbed from 76.7 to 88.

Highlights of each individual index follow.

Present Situation Index

The percentage of consumers rating current business conditions as “bad” decreased 18.5% during the past month, from 38.3% to 31.2%. The percentage of consumers rating current business conditions as “good” fractionally rose from 13.2% to 13.3%. Slightly more consumers now think jobs are easy to get, as the percentage of consumers finding jobs “plentiful” rose from 6.2% to 6.6%. The percentage finding jobs “hard to get” changed more dramatically, falling 11% from 43.3% to 38.7%.

Expectations Index

Consumer optimism about economic conditions in the next six months improved in February as compared to January. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to get worse in the next six months dropped 19%, from 14.6% to 11.8%, while the percentage of consumers expecting an improvement in business conditions in the next six months increased 12%, from 16.7% to 18.7%.

In the area of employment, 16.9% of consumers now expect fewer jobs in the next six months, down 11.5% from 19.1% in January. Meanwhile, 18.7% of consumers expect more jobs in the next six months, up 14% from 16.4% the prior month.

The proportion of consumers expecting an increase in their incomes improved roughly 12%, to 15.4% from 13.8% in January.

Source: The Conference Board, Bloomberg News