The slug of bad economic news early this month may portend problems for the motorcoach industry on a pair of fronts.

The drop in consumer confidence, falling to a four-month low, is never a good sign for the industry.

Thats because declining consumer sentiment often presages a drop in consumer spending, especially the kind of discretionary consumer spending that is critical to the motorcoach industrys economic vitality.

Overall, spending by consumers accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

At the same time, the weak employment report issued early this month has increased calls for Congress to get in gear and pass long-stalled highway and public transportation spending legislation.

Any rush to pass a highway bill could thwart or short-circuit industry efforts to keep onerous safety provisions out of the legislation (see May 15 and June 1 issues of Bus & Motorcoach News).

The jobs report for May was substantially weaker than virtually all economists had been predicting and it sent shockwaves through the U.S. Capitol.

Democrats immediately jumped on Republicans to adopt the Senate-passed version of the highway bill, which contains a long list of draconian motorcoach industry safety mandates, but also increases spending for roads and bridges.

Other indicators of a weakening U.S. economy include:

Declining oil and fuel prices. When the price of oil is falling, its often a sign that economic activity is slowing or sophisticated traders believe the world economy is weakening.

Manufacturing activity in the Chicago area slowed in May. Economists had forecast the index would rise. Chicago is a major industrial center.

The U.S. economy grew at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported, down from the previously announced 2.2 percent rate. U.S. gross domestic product growth was 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Corporate profits rose at the slowest pace in more than three years.

Initial jobless claims climbed in late May, higher than economists forecasts.

The big shocker, however, was the jobs report for May, which was far weaker than economists had predicted. Most expected about 160,000 jobs to be created in May, but the actual number was 69,000.

The national unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent.

The U.S. stock market has lost all of its gains since Jan. 1.