"If the labor markets are volatile, you have a higher chance of losing your job and, therefore, as an individual you need to save more," he said.
Last month was a case in point. Employers added 120,000 workers to payrolls, less than the lowest estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the poorest showing in five months, Labor Department figures showed. The jobless rate dropped to a three-year low of 8.2 percent as some of the unemployed stopped looking for work.
Andrew Hedberg, a Minneapolis resident who's been without a job since losing a seasonal position at Macy's Inc. about a year ago, is among those knowing first-hand the importance of having money stowed away.
Insurance Policy
"I've had to dip into my savings," said Hedberg, 38. "I'm certainly glad that I had savings available to me because not everyone does. It bolsters my belief that savings is the best investment, like an insurance policy that I can make for myself."
By keeping borrowing costs low to spur spending and growth, Federal Reserve policy makers have had a hand in the recent decrease in the rate at which nest eggs are rebuilt, said LeBas. Near-zero interest rates on savings accounts reduce the opportunity cost of putting that cash to work, he said.
"The Federal Reserve, with its low-rate policy, has been subsidizing consumers' ability to spend by reducing the desire to save," said LeBas. The central bank "has actually been more effective than most people recognize in that they've really convinced consumers to spend rather than save, thereby supporting short-term economic activity," he said.
Fed policy makers have kept their benchmark rate near zero since December 2008. Central bank officials have said they plan to keep interest rates low through late 2014.
The recent decline in the saving rate, the share of after- tax income that Americans are able to sock away, including individual retirement accounts and 401(k)s, may also be a statistical mirage that will eventually be revised away, according to economists like Stuart Hoffman. That indicates spending may not decelerate.
"They'll probably revise the savings rate back up," Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in Pittsburg, said in an interview. "I don't believe you're going to see consumer spending die out."
Revisions to gross domestic product figures on Feb. 29 showed wages and salaries from July through September rose $107.2 billion, up from the $24.8 billion gain initially reported. Updates issued last month showed they climbed another $89.1 billion in the fourth quarter, up from an initial estimate of $66.1 billion.