Consumers bullish again

American consumers are starting to feel better about the economy--but unemployment and housing are still lagging.

Consumer confidence spiked in February to 70.4, up from 64.8 last month, according to a survey by the Conference Board, a private research group. The figure was significantly better than the 66.0 score that economists had predicted.

Consumers are also getting a bit less anxious about the labor market: 45.7 percent think jobs are "hard to get"--down from 47 percent in January. An increased number of consumers--4.9 percent--think jobs are "plentiful," up from 4.6 percent. Layoffs have indeed become rarer over the last year, but there are still about 4.5 unemployed workers for every job opening--a very high number by historical standards.

And whether this newfound consumer confidence will lead businesses to start hiring new workers remains to be seen. So far, as consumer spending has increased, companies have invested in new equipment and machinery, or stockpiled their cash. Unemployment remains at 9 percent.

"Looking ahead, consumers are more positive about the economy and their income prospects but feel somewhat mixed about employment conditions," Lynn Franco of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center told the Wall Street Journal.

But even as consumer confidence in most areas picks up, the housing market remains in the doldrums. Home prices declined in December, according to the Case-Shiller home-price indexes. For the last three months of 2010, prices fell by 4.1 percent compared to 2009. And prices in 18 of the 20 cities surveyed were down in 2010.

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)