CNN Poll: Public views of the economy are on the rise, but remain dim

The public’s long-held pessimism about the economy shows signs of easing since last year, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds. But even with the uptick, many Americans’ views of the economy – and the nation as a whole – remain bleak.

Only 35% of Americans say that things in the country today are going well, but that’s an improvement from the 28% who felt positively about the state of affairs last fall. And while just 26% of Americans say they feel the economy is starting to recover from the problems it faced in the past few years, that’s also up from 20% last summer and 17% in December 2022.

Overall, 26% of Americans currently say that economic conditions have stabilized, and 48% say they believe the economy remains in a downturn. Yet, the US economy has been growing strongly since 2020, and the jobs report released Friday showed a stunning gain of 353,000 jobs last month, a stronger-than expected kickoff for 2024.

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The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from January 25-30 among a random national sample of 1,212 adults drawn from a probability-based panel. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.