ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., January 4, 2022 — More than half of voters disapprove President Joe Biden's handling of economic issues in the first year of his administration, according to a CNBC and Change Research poll conducted December 17-20, 2021.
CNBC and Change Research polled more than 1,800 registered voters to determine current economic sentiment and whether voters are better off than they were a year ago as the Biden presidency approaches its one-year mark. More than half (56%) of voters disapprove of the job President Biden is doing as president and are giving him a "C" or "D" in all areas on his report card, virtually the same as Donald Trump's lowest ratings in 2020 CNBC and Change Research polling.
The survey highlights top national issues including how Biden is handling the economy, jobs, the coronavirus and more. Similar to previous polling results, Republicans continue to express more disapproval than Democrats about Biden's performance. However, in this recent poll, Biden is also losing confidence from Independents and some Democrats.
The poll shows that the economy is the top priority for nearly all parties and demographics and 73% of voters say the U.S. economy is in "poor" or "not so good shape," up 17 points from a year ago. A 60% majority disapprove of the way President Biden is handling the economy, a 6-point decline in approval since the CNBC and Change Research poll in late August, and voters give Biden a "C" grade on his handling of the economy. Voters also disapprove of Biden's handling of kitchen table issues like the price of everyday goods (72% disapprove). Inflation is of particular concern; 84% of voters say that the price of groceries is higher, compared to a year ago, and more than one-third (38%) of voters blame rising prices on President Biden, followed by the global pandemic (26%), corporations (23%) and 11% of voters blame government spending. As a result, American voters are increasingly pessimistic about the economy improving in the next year.
Another noteworthy subject in Biden's report card is jobs with voters giving the president a "C." Even though there has been a 9-point improvement in perceptions of the U.S. job market in the past year, the majority of voters (56%) say Biden should receive little to no credit for the economy adding 6 million jobs since he took office. As the Great Resignation continues, 13% of voters say they are very or somewhat likely to quit their jobs in the next six months and when asked what is most important when looking for a new job, the primary factor voters say is higher pay (64%), followed by better benefits (38%) and improved work-life balance (20%). Additionally, of the voters who say they are likely to leave their jobs in the next six months, 18% point to avoiding a vaccine mandate as a factor. When it comes to COVID precautions as a way to help the economy grow and create jobs, a 53% majority of voters believe that expanding vaccine requirements will not help the economy and create jobs while 36% of voters believe that it will and 11% of voters are unsure.
Additional key findings from the CNBC and Change Research "The Biden Economy" poll conducted December 17-20, 2021 include:
- Keeping taxes on corporations low is the policy proposal voters are the least likely to believe will grow the economy and create jobs; a 58% majority of voters say it will not grow the economy and create jobs and just 29% believe that it will.
- Biden gets little mileage out of his legislative accomplishments. Only 21% of voters say the American Rescue Plan helped them, 29% say it left them worse off and 50% say it did not make a difference. While 43% of Biden voters say the plan left them personally better off, 56% of Trump voters say it left them worse off. Though 55% of voters give Biden credit for passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, just 44% of voters say it will grow the economy and create jobs, including 84% of Biden voters, and 38% say it will not help, including 73% of Trump voters.
- Regarding inflation, the most frequently cited expenses by voters are groceries and gas, followed by "everything" and healthcare costs. Also, 53% believe that the higher prices recently seen in stores will not come down for a long time and 25% say they will never come back down. Even a 56% majority of Democrats believe that they will not come down for a long time or ever.
- A majority of voters (55%) disapprove of how Biden is handling the coronavirus, grading him a "C" in the report card. However, there is a clear division in sentiment among the parties; Biden voters gave the president a "B" while Trump voters gave him a "F." When asked whether the coronavirus will be better, worse or about the same in a year from now, 34% of voters say it will be better, 35% say it will be the same and 31% say it will be worse. The poll also shows that 50% of voters say the Biden administration has gone too far with vaccine mandates and 25% say not far enough.
- Only 37% of voters give Biden credit for the stock market reaching record highs, and negative impressions of the stock market are 23 points higher today than they were a year ago despite these gains.
CNBC Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche will reveal the results of the CNBC and Change Research "The Biden Economy" poll today, Tuesday, January 4th throughout CNBC's Business Day programming. For more information on the survey including the full results and methodology and in-depth articles, go to: https://changeresearch.com/post/cnbc-change-research-national-poll-biden-year-1-economic-report-card/.
Methodology:
Change Research surveyed 1,895 registered voters nationally from December 17-20, 2021. Ads placed on social media targeted all adults living in the US and those who indicated that they were not registered to vote were terminated. As the survey fielded, Change Research used dynamic online sampling: adjusting ad budgets, lowering budgets for ads targeting groups that were overrepresented and raising budgets for ads targeting groups that were underrepresented, so that the final sample was roughly representative of the population across different groups. Post-stratification was performed on region, age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, 2018 vote and 2020 presidential vote. Weighting parameters were based on the demographic compositions of the November 2020 electorate, obtained from the voter file. That is, if a given age bracket or gender group represented x% of the 2020 electorate on the voter file, then that same group of 2020 voters would be weighted to x% in this survey. Presidential results were obtained from precinct data. The margin of error as traditionally calculated is 2.3% and the modeled margin of error for this survey is 3.1%, which uses effective sample sizes that adjust for the design effect of weighting. This research, like all public opinion research, does entail some additional unmeasured error.
For additional methodological information, visit: https://www.changeresearch.com/methodology-and-accuracy.
For more information contact:
CNBC
Jennifer Dauble
201-735-4721
jennifer.dauble@nbcuni.com
CNBC
Stephanie Hirlemann
201-397-2838
steph.hirlemann@nbcuni.com
Change Research
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About Change Research:
Change Research provides fast, affordable, and accurate technology-based polling across the country. Since launching in July of 2017, Change Research has conducted over 1,000 polls for candidates, media, and causes at all levels and budgets, surveying nearly 2 million people.
Learn more at www.changeresearch.com and find some of our recent public poll results on Twitter @changepolls.