Satisfaction with state of US, economic confidence tick up: Gallup

Americans are slowly beginning to gain more confidence in the economy as well as satisfaction with “the way things are going in the U.S.,” according to a new Gallup poll released on Wednesday.

Currently, Gallup’s Economic Confidence index stands at minus 4, an improvement from minus 10 that was reported in September. The lowest the index reached this year was minus 32 in April after experiencing a steep drop from positive 41 in February before the coronavirus pandemic started in the U.S. Although modest gains have been made in economic confidence, 53 percent said they felt the economy was getting worse as opposed to 42 percent who felt it was improving.

Along party lines, economic confidence fell at almost exactly opposing sides with Republicans reporting positive 56 and Democrats reporting minus 52. The report notes that the increase in confidence this past month can largely be attributed to self-identified Independents.

19 percent of people surveyed reported satisfaction with the way things are in the U.S. an improvement from the 14 percent reported in September. Republicans were largely responsible for the reported rise in satisfaction with 39 percent satisfied, up from 26 percent in September, versus Democrats and independents, who largely stayed the same at 14 and 5 percent respectively, with Democrats only rising 1 percent.

The same report showed that President Trump had maintained his overall job approval ratings with 43 percent saying they approved of his work indicating a 5-point drop from last month. At multiple points throughout this past year his job approval ratings went as high as 49 percent, the highest of his entire term.

Gallup notes that the fourth year tends to be the most polarizing of a president’s term, with Trump appearing to be no different. 94 percent of Republicans approve of Trump, while only 4 percent of Democrats said the same. This is the largest party gap Gallup has reported since it began collecting data in 1953.