Poll: Americans pessimistic about economy, but upbeat about own finances
Americans are largely pessimistic about the economy in an election year but hold mostly positive views about their personal finances, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Forty-two percent of U.S. adults describe the economy as good, while two-thirds of adults say their own households are doing well, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
{mosads}Some voice worry on the economy as a whole: Just 1 in 3 adults say they’d be very confident they could find another job if they were laid off.
Partisan lines emerge in the polling data, with Republicans holding a much more negative view on the economy under President Obama.
Among Republicans, 34 percent call the U.S. economy good, while a majority of Democrats, 54 percent, say it is good. Republicans are also more pessimistic than Democrats, with 38 percent of GOP supporters saying they expect the economy to deteriorate this year, compared to 18 percent of Democrats.
Still, as a whole, the 42 percent of Americans who view the economy as good compares to 26 percent who reported that view in an October 2013 AP-GfK survey, suggesting views are improving.
The economy has consistently ranked as a top issue in polls during the presidential race, with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump hammering his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton, in recent weeks on a gaffe about coal jobs. Clinton has recently floated her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as an economic adviser in her administration.
The survey of 1,008 adults was conducted online and by phone April 14–18, with an overall margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.
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