(DCWatchdog.com) – Exactly 50% of Americans say they are worse off financially than they were a year back, according to a new poll.
The results from the new Gallup survey were announced on Wednesday after, in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden touted his accomplishments on the economy.
Only 35% of the respondents in the poll said they were better off financially today than they were a year ago, a release by the pollster showed, while Breitbart News commented that its “results are unusually grim.”
“Since Gallup first asked this question in 1976, it has been rare for half or more of Americans to say they are worse off. The only other times this occurred was during the Great Recession era in 2008 and 2009,” Gallup News said.
It noted that the results from the same survey were better even during the coronavirus pandemic.
“In both 2021 and 2022, Americans were evenly divided between saying they were better off versus worse off, including a 41% to 41% split in last year’s survey,” Gallup added.
In the last year before the pandemic, in the January 2020 survey, Americans who said they were better off financially (59%) outnumbered three-to-one those who said they were worse off (20%).
The results from the latest poll indicate that inflation has taken a “high toll” on Americans’ finances, Breitbart commented.
As higher prices outpaced pay increases, real average hourly and weekly wages in the US dropped for the second consecutive year.
Gallup noted that the stock market decline and higher interest rates had also contributed to people’s worsening financial situation.
The survey findings come as America’s official unemployment has decreased to its lowest level since 1969, with a record number of job openings.
The report pointed out that lower-income Americans were likelier to say that their finances worsened in Biden’s second year as president. That is despite his insistence that his administration seeks to “build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down.”
Thus, 61% of households with annual incomes under $40,000 said they were worse off, compared with 41% last year. Only 26% in that income category said they were better off.
Of those making $40,000 – $100,000 per year in the middle–income household group, 49% said they were worse off, and 37% said they were doing better financially than a year ago.
Among higher-income households earning over $100,000 a year, 43% said their finances had deteriorated, and 39% said they had improved.
Regarding political affiliation, 61% of Republicans said they were worse off, while only 37% declared the same. Conversely, almost half – or 47% – of Democrats said they were doing better financially.
The Gallup survey, conducted from January 2-22, also found that 60% of Americans are optimistic and believe their finances would be better a year from now.
What has been your experience? Are you worse off financially than you were a year ago? Please share your thoughts by emailing [email protected]. Thank you.
Half of Americans say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago, the highest level of reported decline since the financial crisis, a Gallup poll released Wednesday showed. https://t.co/vwP5iIDJkj
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 8, 2023
