Employment Gains Help Grow Florida's Consumer Confidence

Backed by job growth, Florida consumers are getting back to the same level of confidence as when 2011 began.

Just remember, Washington politics caused last year's optimism to dip to near-record lows lastsummer.

We are beginning the year with the same pattern as last year, where there were relatively steady increases in confidence from the end of the summer with a surge to 77[points] in January 2011, Chris McCarty, survey director of the University of Floridas Survey Research Center at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, stated in a release.

This was followed by seven months of decline with the low of 61[points] in August 2011, when Congress debated the debt ceiling.

The scales benchmark 100 is equal to the level of consumer confidence in 1966, the year the survey began.

The 77 mark is 7 points higher than where Florida was in December.

Last year's low of 61 was only 2 points above the record low of 59 set in June 2008.

Employment gains, especially in trade, transportation and utilities, may help explain the boost in confidence, the study stated.

While many aspects of the economy are better this year, it remains to be seen whether this level of confidence will be sustained, McCarty added.

The biggest threat to the U.S. economy, and therefore [to] Florida, is the recession in Europe, which would affect Floridians primarily as decreased demand for Florida tourism, decreased demand for houses from foreign investors, and the stock market portfolios of workers and retirees whose investments would include companies with exposure to much of Europe.