At the onset of the pandemic the U.S. economy shrunk at its fastest rate in history. But by mid-May the economy had flipped, on paper at least, from contraction to recovery.
Since then, the jobless rate has fallen from its peak of 14.7% in April to 10.2% in July. Around 9.3 million Americans are back to work. And we’ve seen strong improvement in everything from housing, consumer spending, to manufacturing.
However, only 27% of U.S. adults see the economy as improving, while 57% say the economy is still getting worse. That’s the finding from a Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll of 2,478 U.S. adults between August 17 and 18.
And the direction of the economy is divided along political lines. Among Republicans, 58% see the economy as improving, compared to just 5% of Democrats. Meanwhile 14% of Independents view the economy as improving.
Americans’ pessimistic view of the trajectory of the economy is a challenge for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, which touts an improving economy.
And the president’s claim that he’s the only person who can fix the economy isn’t shared by the public: Among U.S. adults, 49% said Democratic nominee Joe Biden would do a better job as president handling the U.S. economy, compared to 45% who said Trump would.
*Methodology: The Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll was conducted among a national sample of 2,478 adults in the U.S. between August 17-18. This survey’s modeled error estimate is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The findings have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography.
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