Attitudes on the Economy Staying the Course

NEW YORK, March 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Like general political attitudes, attitudes towards the economy are holding steady which, unfortunately, is not good as most of these numbers are on the negative side. First, looking at how President Obama is doing on the economy, three in ten Americans (31%) give him positive ratings on his handling of the economy while seven in ten (69%) give him negative marks. These numbers are unchanged from February.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,234 adults surveyed online between March 12 and 17, 2014. (Full results, including data tables, available here)

Looking at overall attitudes on the economy, again things are holding mostly steady. One-quarter of U.S. adults (24%) say they expect the economy to improve in the coming year, while 45% say it will say the same and three in ten (31%) believe it will get worse. In February, 26% believed the economy would improve in the coming year, 43% believed it would stay the same and 32% said it would get worse. When this narrows a little to the household's financial condition, just over one in five Americans (21%) say their household's financial condition will be better in the next six months, half (52%) say it will stay the same and over one-quarter (27%) believe it will get worse. Again, this is similar to last month when 22% believed their household's financial condition would get better, 52% believed it would remain the same and 26% said it would get worse.

Attitudes on the Job Market

While there have been promising numbers on the overall economy from economists and some leading indicators, the one common refrain is that job recovery will lag. Americans' attitudes on jobs do seem to be lower than those on the overall economy. Almost half of U.S. adults (47%) say the job market in their region of the country is bad, with 60% of those in the East and over half in the Midwest (51%) saying this. One in five Americans (20%) say the current job market in their region is good and one-third (32%) believe it is neither good nor bad. These numbers are similar to January, when 21% believed the job market in their region was good and almost half (48%) believed it was bad.

Looking ahead, over half of Americans (55%) believe that the job market in their region of the country will remain the same over the next six months. Almost one-quarter of U.S. adults (23%) believe the job market will be better over the next six months and 22% believe it will be worse. In January, 53% of Americans believed the job market in their region would remain the same, 24% thought it would get better and 23% believed it would get worse.

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Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between March 12 and 17, 2014 among 2,234 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, The Harris Poll avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Poll surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in our panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of The Harris Poll.

Product and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

The Harris Poll^® #28, March 25, 2014

By Regina A. Corso, SVP, The Harris Poll and Public Relations Research

About Nielsen & The Harris Poll

On February 3, 2014, Nielsen acquired Harris Interactive and The Harris Poll.  Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

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SOURCE The Harris Poll