On the campus of Missouri Southern, consumer confidence has gone down since February of 2013.

A survey conducted on Feb. 12, 2014, by the Missouri Southern Business Journalism class was given at random to 51 students. The goal of the survey was to determine the confidence students had in the local and national economy.

The survey revealed that the percentage of people who view the business conditions in the Joplin area with a positive outlook has dropped from 30 percent in 2013 to only 18 percent in 2014. The survey also revealed that the outlook on current employment conditions took the same 30 to 18 percent drop over the past year.

This differs from the consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters, which is up from a 73.8 mark in January 2013 to 81.5 in January 2014.

Despite the meek outlook on current business and employment conditions, the percentage of people who are positive looking forward has increased in a number of facets.

A majority of students reported their financial status has improved since 2013, with 57 percent saying they were better off than a year ago. Last year, only 43 percent reported a positive financial status.

 There was also an increase in the number of students who have a positive outlook on their financial status looking forward to next year. Only 32 percent of students surveyed in 2013 said they expected to be better off financially. In this year’s survey, 45 percent of students expected to be better off a year from now.

For the second year in a row, only two percent of students reported they feel our government is doing a good job in regards to economic policy. A majority, 59 percent of people, believe our government is doing a poor job, though, which is a 16 percent increase from last year.