Economic confidence ticks up: Gallup

Americans' confidence in the economy ticked up this month, despite the majority saying the country’s financial state is “getting worse,” according to a Gallup poll released Friday.

Respondents who said the economy is “getting better” shot up by 7 percentage points to 31 percent. Still, the majority of poll respondents, 63 percent, said the economy is getting “worse.” 

Despite some respondents stating the economy is improving, their outlook on the current economic conditions remained the same, the survey found. Nearly half of Americans, 45 percent, said the current economic conditions were “poor.” About 31 percent said they were “only fair,” and nearly a quarter, 24 percent, said they were “good” or “excellent.” 

Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index, which looks at Americans’ outlook on the economy and assesses the current economic conditions, increased by 8 points, has gone from minus 35 to minus 27 in August. This was the index’s first improvement since March, Gallup noted. 

When examining economic confidence split by political party, Democrats’ outlook went up from plus 16 to plus 21 during this month, a period during which Vice President Harris replaced President Biden as the party’s presidential nominee. Economic confidence among Republicans was still severely negative, at minus 76. 

Americans were split when analyzing the job market. About 45 percent of respondents said it was a good time to find a worthwhile job, and 50 percent said it was a bad time, according to the poll. 

The poll was conducted Aug. 1-20, among 1,015 adults. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.