• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, July 15, 2009

As far as the majority is concerned, the dreary economic picture may finally be brightening: A new study reports that 57% of respondents say their household economic situation is either the same or better than it was at this time last year.

That's quite a jump from 47% when Performics, an online marketing services firm owned by Publicis Groupe, asked the question in April. And its "2009 Online Buyer Economic Trend Study" finds that while people are still planning on decreasing their spending this year, only 9% cite concerns about the economy, compared to 17% in the April survey. The two most common reasons for cutting back include falling income and reining in nonessential purchases.

"We're starting to see a trend emerge of more optimism," says Michael Kahn, SVP/marketing for Performics. "Consumers are used to the economy where it is, and there's a sense that things have stabilized."

He chalks some of the change up to people getting somewhat desensitized to glum-and-glummer headlines. "After a while, the bad news about the economy just begins to be like white noise for consumers, who then focus on different data points - while job losses have gone up, the rate has slowed. The market seems more stable. And even in real estate, there are occasionally pockets of good news. That makes people more comfortable."

The survey show that people continue to target restaurants (with 69% saying they are spending less in this area), accessories (67%), shoes (65%) and apparel (64%.) People are also still targeting music, with 63% saying they will continue to spend less on downloads or CDs.

Kahn says that this new sense of confidence in the economy coincides with slight gains its retail clients are seeing in online sales in June.

But there's no sense that spending will bounce back to previous levels anytime soon. Two-thirds of respondents say the recession has "fundamentally changed the way they think about saving and spending money," he says, "and 8 out of 10 say the recession will have a lasting impact on them."