Americans’ views of the economy are the best they’ve been in more than a year, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS – but they’re still pretty bad, with 7 in 10 saying it’s in poor shape. Closer to home, 50% say their own financial situation is worse than it was a year ago.
About 3 in 10 Americans, 29%, call the country’s economic conditions good. That’s up from 22% in CNN’s polling last fall but well below the 54% majority who said the same in April 2021. Compared with last fall, the share now saying the economy is good has risen 15 points among Democrats and 10 points among independents, with little change among Republicans.
The survey finds little optimism that the economy will turn around in the next year. About 4 in 10 Americans (39%) expect economic conditions to be good a year from now, a similar outlook to last fall. And the economy continues to top Americans’ list as the most important issue facing the nation.
Half say they’re personally worse off than they were a year ago, with 17% saying they’re now better off, and the remaining third saying that they’re doing about the same. That’s almost unchanged since December, when 49% said they were worse off and remains among the most pessimistic readings on that question across CNN and Gallup polling dating back to 1976.
A 62% majority disapproves of how President Joe Biden has handled helping the middle class, including a third of Democrats who give him a negative rating on the issue. Democratic approval of Biden’s approach to helping the middle class has dropped from 76% last fall to 67% now.
More broadly, only about 31% of Americans say things in the country are going well today. The most recent CNN poll to find a majority of Americans saying things were going well was just before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s a significant partisan divide:…
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