- Prior was 91.8
The April 2026 release, with a survey cutoff of April 22, came in noticeably stronger than expected. The headline index rose to 92.8, up from 91.8 in March and well ahead of consensus near 89.0 — extending a modest run of monthly gains and setting a new high for the year so far.
The internal detail was mixed. Consumers’ views of current business conditions softened: 22.0% called conditions “good” (up from 21.7%), but 17.9% called them “bad” (up from 15.8%). The labor market component improved, however, with 27.3% saying jobs were “plentiful” (vs. 27.4% in March) and the share saying jobs were “hard to get” falling to 19.8% from 21.3%.
Forward-looking measures were also crosscurrents. Consumers were a touch more pessimistic about future business conditions, with 23.6% expecting them to worsen (up from 21.4%). But the labor market outlook brightened — 16.1% expected more jobs ahead (up from 15.4%), and fewer expected job losses. Income expectations were modestly more optimistic, with the share expecting income declines easing to 12.3%
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is one of the two flagship gauges of U.S. household sentiment, alongside the University of Michigan survey. Compiled from a monthly mail-and-online survey of roughly 3,000 households, it is published at 10:00 a.m. ET on the last Tuesday of each month and indexed to a 1985 = 100 base. The headline reading is built from five questions — two on present conditions and three on expectations — that feed into two sub-indexes: the Present Situation Index, which captures how consumers view current business and labor market conditions, and the Expectations Index, which tracks the six-month outlook for income, business, and jobs. A reading below 80 on the Expectations Index has historically signaled elevated recession risk within the next year. The Conference Board release is also closely watched for its labor market differential — the share of consumers saying jobs are “plentiful” minus the share saying jobs are “hard to get” — a leading indicator that tends to track the unemployment rate
