Companies from Saks Inc. to Best Buy Co. are growing more confident that the recent revival of consumer spending is more than just a blip, Bloomberg reported today.

New York-based Saks is “moving from defense to offense,” selectively rebuilding inventory and increasing investment as consumers “come out of their shell,” Stephen Sadove, chairman and CEO of the luxury retailer, told Bloomberg in an e-mail.

U.S. same-store sales at Best Buy rose 7.4 percent during the fourth quarter, the Richfield, Minn.-based electronic retailer said.

The cause of the turnaround is “a large reservoir of pent-up consumer demand,” said Michael Niemira, chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York. “The rise in spending is sustainable.”

The key factor determining the pace of household spending will be the strength of the labor market, JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists said in a March 12 report to clients.

Employers added 190,000 workers to their payrolls in March, the most in three years, according to the median forecast of 62 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The unemployment rate is projected to remain unchanged at 9.7 percent. The U.S. Labor Department will release job statistics for March on Thursday.

Income growth is also contributing to the optimism. Wages and salaries increased 0.8 percent from September 2009 to February 2010 after falling 5.1 percent between August 2008 and July 2009, based on U.S. Commerce Department data.

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