LESS than one in ten people are confident about the region's economic outlook, statistics have shown.

While just over a third of consumers feel positive about the North-East's economic climate, confidence in the future has dropped to an all-time low.

Just nine per cent of people said they remain upbeat about the economic outlook, according to the Nationwide Building Society's quarterly Consumer Confidence Index.

Job availability has also caused concern among consumers, with confidence in the employment situation plummeting in the fourth quarter of last year - making the North-East the least confident of all regions in the UK.

Looking ahead, sentiment about future job availability also fell four points, leaving only 40 per cent of consumers in the North-East confident about future employment.

Overall, confidence nose-dived by 17 points in the final three months of the year to 76 - an all-time low for the region and 11 points below the UK average of 87.

Across Britain, people in Northern Ireland and Scotland continue to be the most confident, while those in the North-East and the West Midlands are the gloomiest.

Consumers in the region are also the least confident about making major purchases, such as a house or a car.

Rosemary Callender, Nationwide's consumer confidence spokeswoman, said: "Continued uncertainty in the financial markets, record oil prices, rising food prices and slowing house price growth all seem to have contributed to a deterioration in confidence over the past three months."