Attitudes on Economic Issues All Show Positive Trend

Press release from the issuing company

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

The economy and jobs continue to be two of the more important issues driving the national political debate. But the general feeling about how things are going seems to be getting better according to a number of different indicators. First, looking at President Obama's handling of the economy, one-third of Americans (32%) give the President positive ratings while 68% give him negative ratings. This is up from just one-quarter of U.S. adults (25%) who gave him positive ratings in January and is the first time President Obama has had positive marks in the thirties since May of 2011.

The second positive indicator on the economy is on expectations. Over one-third of Americans (36%) say they expect the economy to improve in the coming year while two in five (40%) say it will remain the same and one-quarter (24%) believe it will get worse. Again, this is up from December when one-quarter of U.S. adults (23%) believed the economy would improve, almost half (47%) felt it would stay the same and three in ten (29%) thought it would get worse.

Perceptions of the job market are also improving, albeit a little more slowly. Three in five Americans (59%) rate the current job market of their region of the country as bad, 16% say it is good and one-quarter (25%) say it is neither good nor bad. In January, almost two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) felt the job market in their region was bad and 14% felt it was good. This is the first time since July of 2008 that the percentage of those who think the job market in their region is bad is below 60%.

Looking ahead, there is also a sense of optimism on where the job market is heading. One-third of Americans (32%) believe the job market in their region of the nation will get better in the next six months, half (51%) say it will stay the same and 17% believe it will get worse. Last month, just one-quarter (27%) felt the job market would get better, over half (53%) felt it would remain the same and one in five (21%) felt it would get worse.

Finally, feelings about whether the country is still in a recession or not are also improving. In September, seven in ten Americans (69%) felt the country was still in a recession, while one in ten each felt that the U.S. came out of a recession but will now enter a new recession (11%) and the country has come out of the recession and the economy is growing (10%). A few months later and, while over half of Americans (56%) still think the country is in a recession, one-quarter (24%) believe the country has come out of the recession and the economy is growing and just 8% believe the U.S. has come out of a recession but will enter a new one.

So What?
People vote based on how things are for them economically, so if they do not have money or are struggling to keep their jobs, then it's probably time for a change in political leaders. But, if things are going well, people feel more secure in their jobs and have a little extra money to either save or spend, they are not as likely to want to make a change. If these positive feelings hold, that bodes well for President Obama.

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								2010
	March	April	May	June	Aug	Sept	Nov	Dec	Jan	Mar	Apr	May
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE (NET)	47	49	46	43	39	40	34	36	31	32	33	36
Excellent	13	13	10	3	9	7	6	6	5	5	6	6
Pretty good	34	36	36	34	31	33	27	30	25	27	27	30
NEGATIVE (NET)	53	51	54	57	61	60	66	64	69	68	67	64
Only fair	30	27	30	27	25	27	30	30	31	30	31	29
Poor	23	24	24	30	36	33	37	34	39	37	36	34

	2010						2011
	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb*	Mar	May	June	July
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE (NET)	32	32	29	27	31	30	33	33	33	32	27	26
Excellent	5	6	5	5	5	5	7	9	5	7	5	3
Pretty good	27	26	24	22	26	25	26	24	28	26	22	23
NEGATIVE (NET)	68	68	71	73	69	70	67	62	67	68	73	74
Only fair	32	29	31	33	30	34	30	22	29	28	30	33
Poor	37	39	40	39	39	36	37	39	38	40	43	41

	2011				2012
	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.
	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE (NET)	21	23	22	25	25	32
Excellent	2	3	3	4	2	3
Pretty good	18	20	20	22	22	29
NEGATIVE (NET)	79	77	78	75	75	68
Only fair	33	36	32	34	34	30
Poor	46	41	46	41	41	38
Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding; *In February "Not at all sure" was offered as a response choice and 4% responded in that way.

TABLE 2 PRESIDENT OBAMA'S JOB RATING ON THE ECONOMY – BY POLITICAL PARTY "Now, turning to something different, how would you rate the overall job that President Barack Obama is doing on the economy?"
Base: All adults
	Total	Political Party			Philosophy
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.	Cons.	Mod.	Lib.
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
POSITIVE (NET)	32	8	59	28	13	34	57
Excellent	3	2	6	1	3	3	5
Pretty good	29	6	54	27	10	31	52
NEGATIVE (NET)	68	92	41	72	87	66	43
Only fair	30	22	32	32	18	37	30
Poor	38	70	8	40	69	29	12

TABLE 3 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE ECONOMY IN THE COMING YEAR - TREND "In the coming year, do you expect the economy to…?"
Base: All adults
	2009					2010
	April	May	Aug	Sept	Oct	May	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Improve	39	38	46	40	34	38	30	29	28	30	34	29
Stay the same	35	35	32	36	37	34	42	39	40	40	41	45
Get worse	26	27	22	24	29	28	28	32	32	30	25	26

	2011						2012
	Feb	June	July	Sept.	Oct.	Dec.	Feb.
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Improve	34	26	23	21	20	23	36
Stay the same	42	41	41	45	46	47	40
Get worse	25	33	37	34	34	29	24
Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 4 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE ECONOMY IN THE COMING YEAR "In the coming year, do you expect the economy to…?"
Base: All adults
	Total	Political Party
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.
	%	%	%	%
Improve	36	17	61	32
Stay the same	40	46	29	41
Get worse	24	34	9	26
Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 5 RATING OF CURRENT JOB MARKET - TREND "How would you rate the current job market of your region of the nation?"
Base: All adults
	2008		2009
	June	July	Jan	April	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
GOOD (NET)	28	30	6	12	9	8	10	10	8	9
Neither good nor bad	18	19	18	20	19	21	22	20	18	19
BAD (NET)	53	51	76	68	72	71	68	70	73	72

	2010
	Jan	Mar.	April	May	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
GOOD (NET)	10	8	10	12	10	12	10	13	11	13
Neither good nor bad	20	18	21	20	25	22	21	21	23	24
BAD (NET)	70	73	70	68	66	66	69	66	66	63

	2011							2012
	Jan	Feb	March	May	July	Sept	Oct	Jan	Feb
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
GOOD (NET)	13	15	13	16	12	11	9	14	16
Neither good nor bad	22	24	22	23	24	22	24	21	25
BAD (NET)	65	61	65	61	64	67	67	65	59
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 6 RATING OF CURRENT JOB MARKET IN YOUR REGION – BY REGION "How would you rate the current job market of your region of the nation?"
Base: All adults
	Total	Region
	Total	East	Midwest	South	West
	%	%	%	%	%
GOOD (NET)	16	15	15	19	12
Very good	2	3	1	2	1
Somewhat good	14	12	14	16	11
Neither good nor bad	25	29	24	26	22
BAD (NET)	59	56	61	55	66
Somewhat bad	36	34	36	33	42
Very bad	23	22	23	22	24

TABLE 7 EXPECTATIONS FOR JOB MARKET IN SIX MONTHS – TREND "How do you think that the job market in your region of the nation will change over the next 6 months?"
Base: All adults
	2009				2010
	Jan	April	June	Aug	June	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
BETTER (NET)	15	23	21	28	26	23	21	23	30	25
Will be much better	1	3	2	2	1	2	2	3	2	2
Will be somewhat better	14	20	19	26	25	21	19	20	28	23
Will remain the same	36	42	47	47	53	49	53	53	50	54
WORSE (NET)	49	36	32	25	21	27	26	24	21	22
Will be somewhat worse	36	29	24	19	15	22	20	18	15	16
Will be much worse	14	7	8	6	6	5	6	6	6	6

	2011					2012
	Jan	Feb	Mar	May	July	Jan	Feb
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
BETTER (NET)	31	31	32	30	22	27	32
Will be much better	4	4	2	4	2	2	2
Will be somewhat better	26	27	30	26	20	25	29
Will remain the same	51	51	52	49	53	53	51
WORSE (NET)	18	18	16	21	25	21	17
Will be somewhat worse	13	13	11	14	17	14	12
Will be much worse	6	5	6	7	8	7	5
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 8 EXPECTATIONS FOR JOB MARKET IN SIX MONTHS – BY POLITICAL PARTY "How do you think that the job market in your region of the nation will change over the next 6 months?"
Base: All adults
	Total	Political Party
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.
	%	%	%	%
BETTER (NET)	32	18	52	27
Will be much better	2	2	3	2
Will be somewhat better	29	15	49	25
Will remain the same	51	60	39	55
WORSE (NET)	17	23	9	18
Will be somewhat worse	12	15	5	13
Will be much worse	5	7	3	5
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 9 ARE WE IN A RECESSION? "Thinking of the U.S. economy, which statement below is closest to your view?"
Base: All adults
	Sept. 2011	Feb 2012	Political Party
	Sept. 2011	Feb 2012	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.
	%	%	%	%	%
The U.S. is still in a recession	69	56	57	61	58
The U.S. has come out of a recession and the economy is growing	10	24	25	21	24
The U.S. came out of a recession but will now enter a new recession	11	8	7	7	8
Not at all sure	11	12	11	12	10
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding