Singapore's consumer confidence levels are showing signs of strengthening even as the overall mood is still less than sunny, said Nielsen on Wednesday.

Nielsen's Consumer Confidence Index showed confidence in Singapore has rebounded to 98 points in the third quarter, after having stayed at 95 in the past three quarters.

Still, the overall picture points to a general pessimism in Singapore - consumer confidence levels above a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and levels below 100 reflect pessimism.

The Nielsen report revealed a nine percentage point increase in consumers' outlook on their job prospects, with 61 per cent of Singaporeans saying they believe their job prospects in the coming 12 months will be either good or excellent, up from 52 per cent in the last quarter who thought so.

The results also showed an improvement in consumers' outlook on their personal finances, with 54 per cent of Singaporeans viewing the state of their personal finances in the coming 12 months as good or excellent, up from 50 per cent in the second quarter.

"Recent local and global economic forecasts and events have presented us with a mixed picture," said Mr Luca Griseri, Nielsen Singapore and Malaysia's head of financial services.

"On the one hand the global economic outlook remains uncertain, with the ongoing rebalancing of the Chinese economy and the impact of the recent United States government shutdown. On the other hand, the domestic outlook is much more positive, with a number of better-than-expected indicators having been announced for Singapore."

The Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions, established in 2005, measures consumer confidence, major concerns, and spending intentions amongst more than 30,000 respondents with Internet access in 60 countries.