There's no better sign that consumers aren't yet ready to say the economy's getting better, even if many indicators are pointing up, than this news from Reuters:

U.S. consumer sentiment fell unexpectedly this month on persistent worries that the "dismal" state of personal finances would not recover quickly from the worst recession in decades, a report showed on Friday.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary index of sentiment for October fell to 69.4, from September's 73.5.

That was below economists' median expectation of a steady reading of 73.5, according to a Reuters poll.

"While consumers still anticipated gains in the general economy and now think that the unemployment rate is close to its cyclical peak, there has been no improvement in consumers' dismal assessments of their personal financial situation," the report said.

Check Planet Money for much more about how the economy is doing.

Update at 11:40 a.m. ET. As NPR's David Kestenbaum reported on Morning Edition, one reason consumers aren't feeling so great may be that we're experiencing another "jobless recovery":