Unemployment Bogs State Consumer Confidence

GAINESVILLE, FL-Measurements of the spending mood among Floridians are starting to get trickier. No sooner than the state experienced a five-point jump in the overall index of the Florida Consumer Confidence Survey to start the new year, it lost two points in February.

The culprit appears to be unemployment, which reached nearly 12% statewide in January even as the rest of the US fell slightly below 10%. Now Florida, which has always been to outshining the rest of the nation, is starting to feel like it’s on the down side.

“This month, Floridians may be coming to terms with the possibility that Florida’s economy will not recover at the same pace as other states,” says Chris McCarty, who directs the survey for the University of Florida’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research in Gainesville. He points out that expectations of US economic conditions and personal finances declined for February, while perceptions about buying big-ticket consumer items rose slightly.