Consumers have been regaining confidence and feeling better about the jobs market. For instance, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to a six-and-a-half year high in June. Moreover, their expectations for the next six months improved to a 10-month high. The Thomson Reuters/University Consumer Sentiment Index ticked up as well in June, but not at record levels.

In addition, the ongoing recovery in the labor market has made people feel more comfortable about the job market. As the figure below shows, the share who thought jobs were plentiful has been trending up starting in 2010 to 14.7 percent in June which is the most seen since May 2008. (Although, almost 54 percent of consumers in June still feel jobs are scarce.)

One downside to the Consumer Confidence report is that people under the age of 35, otherwise known as “Millennials,” lost confidence in the economy in June. They represented 28% (65.6 million) of the population 20 years and older in 2013 with the largest 5-year cohort among all ages at 20 to 24 (22.8 million), according to recently-released estimates by the Census Bureau. Their unemployment rates were 8.1% and 11.1%, respectively, as of May this year. This helps explain why households under 35 have a homeownership rate of only 36.2% in the first quarter of 2014 and they just may be those that feel jobs are scarce.

Tags: consumer confidence, Economists, Homebuilders, housing