U.S. consumer confidence fell another notch in September as job concerns continued to weigh on sentiment.

The Conference Board said today its consumer-confidence index fell to 96.8 in September from 98.7 in August, with current conditions more worrying for consumers than the economy’s future prospects.

The present-situation index fell to 95.5 from 100.7 in the prior month. Consumer expectations for the state of economic activity over the next six months held steady at 97.6, up only a hair from last month’s 97.3

“The recent declines in the index were caused primarily by a deterioration in consumers’ assessment of employment conditions,” Lynn Franco of the Conference Board said in a release. “Soft labor conditions have clearly taken a toll on consumer confidence.”

The number of those polled characterizing jobs as “hard to get” rose to 28.3% from 26.0% in August. Those that said jobs were “plentiful” dropped to 16.8% from 18.4%.

The survey found the outlook on the labor market was more mixed. Consumers expecting to see fewer job openings over the next six months increased to 16.1% from 15.1% while those expecting hiring to pickup rose to 17.7% from 16.3%. The Conference Board also said consumers expecting their incomes to rise over the next six months rose slightly to 20.0% from 19.7%.

The percentage of consumers planning to buy a car fell to 5.4% from 6.6% in August and those planning to buy a home dipped modestly to 3.1% from 3.2%.

Overall, Americans’ view of the future changed little in the last month. Those expecting economic conditions to worsen rose to 9.4% from 8.8% while those anticipating better days increased to 21.4% from 20.2%.