PRESIDENT&CEO Magazine: Americans Still Very Pessimistic on the Economy

Americans Still Very Pessimistic on the Economy
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PCEO Staff on 09/26/2011 16:29:00

Over two-thirds of U.S. adults believe country is still in a recession

As Americans continue to struggle financially and as the financial markets
continue to have large swings, it is not surprising that U.S. adults are
expressing very negative feelings on the economy and the job market.  Looking at
the President's ratings, just one in five Americans (21%) give him positive
ratings on his handling of the economy while 79% give him negative ratings. In
July, 26% of U.S. adults gave the President positive ratings while 74% gave him
negative marks.  When it comes to his handling of the economy, even large
majorities of Democrats (58%) and Liberals (64%) give President Obama negative
ratings.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,462 adults surveyed
online between September 12 and 19, 2011 by Harris Interactive.
The economy
Looking at the economy in general, it seems people are continuing to be
pessimistic. In July, one-quarter of Americans (23%) expected the overall
economy to improve in the coming year, two in five (41%) thought it would stay
the same and a little over one-third (37%) thought it would get worse. This
month, 45% think the economy will stay the same, 34% believe it will get worse
and 21% think it will get better in the coming year.
Breaking down economic conditions to a regional level, just one in ten
Americans rate the economic condition of their region of the country as good
(12%), 22% say it is neither good nor bad and two-thirds (65%) say it is bad. In
May, one in five U.S. adults (18%) thought the economy in their region was good,
23% said it was neither good nor bad and three in five (59%) said it was bad.
The job market
Hand in hand with pessimism on the overall economy is pessimism on the job
market. Two-thirds of Americans (67%) rate the current job market in their
region of the country as bad, one in ten (11%) rate it as good and 22% say it is
neither good nor bad. In July, 64% of U.S. adults said the job market was bad,
12% said it was good and 24% said it was neither good nor bad.
Recession?
As many questions swirl about a double dip recession, a large majority of
Americans do not even think we've come out of the first recession. Seven in ten
U.S. adults (69%) say the United States is still in a recession while one in ten
say the U.S. came out of a recession but will now enter a new recession (11%)
and another one in ten say the U.S. has come out of a recession and the economy
is growing (10%).  There is a partisan difference as well with three-quarters of
Republicans (76%) saying we are still in a recession compared to 69% of
Independents and 65% of Democrats.
So What?
Americans are waiting for answers on when the economy is going to turn around.
Right now, they do not have much optimism that things are going to get better
soon. In fact, contrary to what economists have been saying, Americans do not
even think we have come out of the recession. President Obama went to Congress
to talk about jobs. Now they have to agree on and pass legislation that show
voters they understand their concerns. Until this happens, the pessimism will
likely remain.
TABLE 1
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING ON THE ECONOMY - TREND
"Now, turning to something different, how would you rate the overall job that
President Barack Obama is doing on the economy?"  Base: All adults
2009
Mch
Apr
May
June
Aug
Sept
Nov
Dec
POSITIVE
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Net
47
49
46
43
39
40
34
36
Excellent
13
13
10
3
9
7
6
6
Pretty good
34
36
36
34
31
33
27
30
NEGATIVE
Net
53
51
54
57
61
60
66
64
Only fair
30
27
30
27
25
27
30
30
Poor
23
24
24
30
36
33
37
34
2010
Jan
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
POSITIVE
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Net
31
32
33
36
32
32
29
27
31
30
Excellent
5
5
6
6
5
6
5
5
5
5
Pretty good
25
27
27
30
27
26
24
22
26
25
NEGATIVE
Net
69
68
67
64
68
68
71
73
69
70
Only fair
31
30
31
29
32
29
31
33
30
34
Poor
39
37
36
34
37
39
40
39
39
36
2011
Jan
Feb*
Mar
May
Jun
Jul
Sept
POSITIVE
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Net
33
33
33
32
27
26
21
Excellent
7
9
5
7
5
3
2
Pretty good
26
24
28
26
22
23
18
NEGATIVE
Net
67
62
67
68
73
74
79
Only fair
30
22
29
28
30
33
33
Poor
37
39
38
40
43
41
46