PRINCETON, NJ -- The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update on Americans' views of the U.S. economy finds little significant change compared to the Monday's report. Today's three-day rolling average includes interviewing on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and shows that 79% of Americans believe the U.S. economy is getting worse, while 16% feel it is getting better.
Today's average on the "getting worse" measure is only a couple of points worse than the reports for the prior three days -- 77% said the economy was getting worse in each report.
Additionally, the three-day average shows that 42% of Americans rate the economy as "poor", which is up slightly from Monday's report, but no different than what was measured as recently as last Friday's report including interviews from Sept. 9-11.
Putting all of the data together, the Gallup Poll Daily tracking average shows that 10% of Americans can be classified as positive in their economic views, 18% as mixed, and 70% negative. That is essentially unchanged from Monday's report.
An examination of single-night interviewing from Monday night, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 500 points and Sunday's financial calamities dominated the news, does not reflect a dramatic downturn in either views of the current economy nor perceptions about the direction of the economy.
As the week progresses, Americans' views of the economy may change further -- particularly if the Dow Jones average continues to fall, or if further problems in the banking industry are reflected in the news. For the moment, however, Gallup's tracking data do not suggest that Monday's financial news caused an immediate downturn in the American public's views of the economy.
Survey Methods
Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008. The economic questions analyzed in this report are asked of a random half-sample of respondents. The results reported here are based on combined data from 1,517 interviews conducted Sept. 13-15, 2008. For results based on this sample, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
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