Poll: Inflation, finances up sharply as priorities
77% of respondents refer to economy in some way
WASHINGTON – Concerns about inflation and personal finances have surged while COVID has evaporated as a top issue for Americans, a new poll shows, marking an upheaval in priorities just months before critical midterm elections.
Forty percent of U.S. adults specifically name inflation in an open-ended question as one of up to five priorities for the government to work on in the next year, according to a June poll from The Associated PRESS-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s a sharp rise from 14% in December and less than 1% the year prior. In all, 77% mention the economy in some way, up from 68% in December. But just 10% specifically mention jobs or unemployment, as U.S. employers continue to hire despite high inflation and weak economic growth.
Now, too, Americans increasingly call their personal finances a major issue: 44% mention them, up from 24% in December and 12% the year before. That includes more mentioning gas or energy prices (33% now vs. 10% in December) and food costs (9% vs. less than 1%).
Those shifts may be advantageous to Republicans as they campaign to win control of Congress in this year’s midterms; the economy has increasingly been a sore subject for President Joe Biden. Still, the economy isn’t the only issue getting more attention. Many also prioritize issues that are core to Biden and Democrats’ agenda, including abortion, women’s rights and gun policy.
In a troubling sign for both parties,
the poll finds many Americans say they think neither side of the aisle is better at focusing on the issues important to them or getting things done.
The rise in concern on the economy is paired with a steep drop in the percentage naming COVID-19 as a top issue, even as new variants emerge: Just 4% mention it, down from 37% in December 2021 and 53% in December 2020.
The poll shows 69% of Americans disapprove of how Biden is handling the economy, including 93% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats. In May, facing an inflation rate at a 40-year high, most Americans said in an AP-NORC poll that they worried about the impact of higher-than-usual prices on their finances.
Mentions of abortion or women’s rights increased sharply to 22% from just 8% in December following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade. The poll shows 12% of U.S. adults mention racial issues, similar to
December 2021, but a notable decline from 24% in 2020.
Mentions of gun issues also ticked up to 30% from 24% in December 2021 – both significantly higher compared with 5% in December 2020. The 2021 poll was conducted just after a deadly shooting at a Michigan high school.
The poll shows a majority of Americans – 57% – don’t think one party is better than the other at getting things done. Thirty-seven percent don’t think either is better at focusing on their priorities; the remainder split about evenly between the two parties. Politics is mentioned in some way as a top problem by 29% of Americans.
The poll of 1,053 adults was conducted June 23-27 using a sample drawn from NORC’S Amerispeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.