Percentage of Americans who say economy is in a recession or depression drops sharply: Gallup

The percentage of Americans who say they think the economy is in a recession or depression has dropped sharply from May as the economy slowly makes up ground lost during the coronavirus pandemic.

A Gallup poll released Thursday shows that 59 percent of adults say the economy is in a recession or a depression, down 16 points from 75 percent who said the same in mid-May. The percentage of Americans who say they think the country is in a depression has also declined sharply, from 36 percent to 18 percent.

While a majority of those surveyed said they still believe the economy is contracting, 21 percent said the economy is growing, up from 3 percent in May.

The views on the economy are sharply divided along party lines, with 45 percent of Republicans saying the economy is growing and more than 80 percent of Democrats saying that it is in a recession or depression.

The poll also shows a modest drop in the percentage of Americans who say they’re worried about experiencing financial hardships, from 50 percent last month to 44 percent in June. And 63 percent said they can follow social distancing measures and bear business closures “as long as necessary” before experiencing financial hardship.

The new poll comes the same day as the Commerce Department announced the U.S. economy shrank at an annualized rate of 5 percent in the first quarter of 2020. The drop was the steepest first-quarter reduction seen in the U.S. since the Great Recession but only covered the beginning of the fallout from the pandemic.

Economists expect gross domestic product to have fallen by an annualized rate of up to 40 percent in the second quarter, which covered the most serious periods of the pandemic.

The National Bureau of Economic Research announced earlier this month that the U.S. entered a recession in late February.