A majority of Americans say that their financial situation has not improved since the 2016 election, according to a Bankrate survey released Wednesday.
Of those surveyed, 17 percent said they were worse off now than two years ago and 45 percent said their situation has not changed. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said their finances have improved.
Despite low unemployment numbers and rising job numbers, senior Bankrate analyst Mark Hamrick noted that economic improvements are not being felt by everyone.
“Ultimately, a rising economic tide lifts many boats. It does not lift all of them,” he said.
“The economy is paying dividends for many Americans, but there are still many people and pockets of the U.S. economy that are hoping for those dividends to appear.”
Respondents’ perceptions of their financial situations were split along party lines.
Of those that identified as Democrats, 48 percent found their financial situation to be the same and 23 percent found it to be worse, while only 32 percent of Republicans felt stagnant and 9 percent said they were worse off.
Democrats who did notice improvement also did not give the credit to Republicans in office, with only 7 percent attributing the positive change to Trump, Republicans in Congress or both.
Of the respondents who identified as Republicans, 71 percent who noted improvement attributed it to the president or Republicans in Congress.
The poll surveyed 1,001 respondents between Sep. 25 and 30. The margin of error for the sample is 3.72 percentage points.
*Originally reported by The Hill
Leave a Reply