WASHINGTON (AP) – Consumer confidence dipped slightly in August, though Americans’ mood about job security remained near its highest levels of the year.

The AP-Ipsos consumer confidence index slipped to 103.4 in September compared with 104.8 in August. Still, public confidence in the economy is near its highest levels of the year.

Job seekers have faced a slow and uneven recovery in the job market, which saw the addition of 144,000 jobs in August and a dip in the unemployment rate from 5.5 percent in July to 5.4 percent in August.

Higher oil prices have threatened the economy’s comeback, and analysts have estimated those high prices have taken more than $50 billion out of consumer spending.

Kirk Deason, a 33-year-old telecommunications worker from Denver, Colo., said he doesn’t expect the economy to shift dramatically in the coming months.

“I think things are just holding steady,” Deason said. “I don’t think any miracles are coming.”

The AP-Ipsos confidence index is benchmarked to a 100 reading on January 2002, the month the index was started by Ipsos.

The polling by Ipsos-Public Affairs found that 48 percent said they are more confident now than they were six months ago about job security for themselves, family members and others they know. That’s up from 41 percent who said that in April.

With the presidential campaign heating up, perceptions of the economy’s strength had a sharp partisan split – Republicans were far more likely than Democrats or independents to say the economy was very strong, the polling found.

For Jorge Nobregas, a 45-year-old salesman from Barrington, Ill., future prospects for the economy look bright.

“There’s gradual improvement,” said the Republican-leaning Nobregas. “Interest rates are low. Taxes are low. Corporate America is looking at reinvesting and as they do, they will need the manpower.”

Darleen Schaumburg, an 82-year-old Democratic retiree from Phoenix, the economy won’t get better without a new president.

“I don’t think it’s doing very well,” she said. “I think the president is spending too much money outside the country on the war. If you change who’s running things, the economy will change for the better.”

The AP-Ipsos consumer confidence index is based on a poll of 1,001 adults taken Sept. 7-9, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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