Six years after the Great Recession ended, only about a quarter of Americans have a positive view of the U.S. economy and its prospects, though significantly more feel good about their personal financial situation, according to a new USA Today/Wells Fargo survey.
The findings underscore that although perceptions have improved along with the economy, the scars of the downturn have left Americans warier and less optimistic about the future.
“We’ve come a long way from two, three, four years ago, when people were completely shell-shocked,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. But he adds, “I do think people are still cautious and haven’t really bought into the idea that this economy is performing well. The dark shadow of the recession continues to hang over the collective psyche.”
Americans’ leery outlook, he says, could be a reason consumer spending has advanced but failed to take off despite significantly improved household finances. And it could influence voters’ choices in the 2016 presidential election.
Twenty-seven percent of those surveyed rate the U.S. economy as good or very good, while an equal share say it’s poor or very poor. And only 26% expect conditions to be better a year from now, while 23% believe they’ll be worse, says the online survey of 3,533 U.S. adults conducted in early June.
“Folks don’t see nearly as much opportunity with the economy today as they did in the past,” Wells Fargo Senior Economist Mark Vitner says.
Survey participants were surprisingly downbeat about key elements of the U.S. economy, particularly the labor market. Slightly fewer than three in 10 believe there’s a growing job market or opportunities for workers to advance, even though monthly payroll growth is averaging a solid 208,000 this year and hit a 15-year high of 260,000 in 2014. The unemployment rate has fallen to a near-normal 5.3% from 10% in 2009.
Despite their restrained views of the economy, half of Americans feel good or very good about their financial situation and 42% expect it to get better in a year.
