American consumer moods deteriorated for a second month in August, but perceptions of the labor market improved, perhaps suggesting a spate of poor jobs data was a false alarm.

Those were the main takeaways from Tuesday’s update on Conference Board confidence, which printed 89.4 on the headline. That was below estimates and the lowest since January.

You can blame expectations for the drop. The forward-looking gauge slipped nearly six points to an abysmal 68.2, well below the threshold which historically presaged a recession. The present situation gauge, by contrast, rebounded, bouncing back after three straight monthly declines.

As the figure above reminds you, the main index remains depressed near the pandemic-era lows. There’s no real respite to be found here, although it’s probably fair to say Tuesday’s release looked better under the hood than it did on the surface.

“Consumers’ write-in responses were slightly more pessimistic in August,” Conference Board chief economist Dana Peterson said. “References to prices in general — and oil and gas specifically — remain elevated [while] comments about war/conflict, food/groceries, trade and jobs rose.”

The good news is, the labor differential was much better this month. The share saying jobs are “plentiful” snapped back to 27% from 24.4%, while the share describing jobs as “hard to get” fell below 20% for the first time since May.

The figure above shows you the recent trajectory of the “hard to get” share. It was an early warning sign for July’s lackluster NFP release.

All in all, this was a mixed update which, despite evidencing the same nationwide “vibecession” we’ve all become accustomed to in the 2020s, at least suggested the labor market isn’t as dire as feared.