The District Sentinel Discontent Index increased in November for the first time in six months, to 100.26 from 99.58 in October.
The movement was driven by increases to the Labor and Consumer Discontent subcomponents.
Labor Discontent was up on an increase in the number of workers participating in major work stoppages recorded by BLS. In November, 8,100 workers were involved in industrial disputes, up from 3,400 in October.
Consumer Discontent was down on a 6.5-point decrease in the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index.
Housing Discontent, meanwhile, decreased to 41.9 from 42.32 in October, largely due to a 0.14-percentage point decrease in the rate of seriously delinquent FHA-backed mortgages.
Previous Discontent Index measurements taken over the past few years were revised slightly due to an annual BLS update to Consumer Price Index and wage data that occurred in January. The Sentinel also took the time to update data that had been revised by BLS in 2015 (we regret not noticing these changes sooner).
The overall trend of the Index is not altered by the revisions. The Discontent Index moved, in average absolute terms, by less than one-tenth of one percent as a result
Between its January 2004 baseline (DI=99.9, all three sub-indexes=33.3) and its public launch in late 2014, the Discontent Index peaked at 144.34 in Aug. 2011–one month before the Occupy Wall Street movement started. Its record low was 87.64 in Dec. 2006–when unemployment reached a post-tech bubble trough of 4.4 percent. Both the peak and trough were revised down by 0.01 due to the aforementioned data updates.
