Positive ratings of President Obama's overall job performance hit the four in ten mark this month (40%), not far from last month's 39% and just shy of his recent peak of 41%, seen in May. This figure is up considerably, however, in comparison to where it sat in August of 2014 (32%).

Forty percent (40%) of Americans also rate President Obama positively on the job he's doing handling the economy; this continues an incremental rise over the past few months (vs. 36% in June and 38% in July) and puts this rating at its highest level since February (when it was also 40%). Moreover, it's a full ten points ahead of where it was a year ago (30% in August 2014).

On both these measures, strong majorities of Democrats approve of his performance (70% overall, 69% for his performance on the economy) while two-thirds of Independents (66% for each measure) and more than nine in ten Republicans (94% overall, 91% economy) disapprove of the work he's doing.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,212 adults surveyed online between August 12 and 17, 2015. Full results of this study, including data tables, can be found here.

Millennials are split on their sentiments toward the President overall, with roughly half each rating him positively and negatively. They're definitely bigger fans than other generations, though – more likely than any of their elders to give him positive ratings (49%, vs. 36% Gen X, 37% Baby Boomers and 30% Matures) and less likely to rate him negatively (51%, vs. 64%, 63% and 70%).

• A similar story emerges in relation to the president's performance on the economy, with Millennials again giving the President the strongest positive ratings (47% vs. 37%, 38% and 32%).

Nine in ten Americans give Congress negative ratings

One in ten Americans rate Congress positively on the overall job they're doing (in line with last month's 11% but up marginally from 8% last August). The other nine in ten (90%) give them negative ratings, with 54% calling out their performance specifically as poor.

• Democrats (12%) and Independents (10%) are both more likely than Republicans (4%) to give Congress positive ratings.

• Millennials again show the strongest positive ratings, though admittedly a positive rating of 17% (vs. 10%, 5% and 2%) does show substantial room for improvement.

Two in ten Americans (20%) rate their member of the House of Representatives positively, on par with last month's 21%.

Direction of the country

Just over a third of Americans (34%) believe things in the country are headed in the right direction, while 66% believe they've gotten off on the wrong track.

• A majority of Democrats (53%) believe the country is heading in the right direction, while majorities of Republicans (87%) and Independents (69%) believe things have gotten off on the wrong track.