Poll: Majority believes economy will improve next year

A majority of voters believes the economy will be better off a year from now, according to a Fox News poll. 

The poll released Tuesday found 54 percent believe the economy will be better off next year, while 35 percent believe it will be worse.

{mosads}A plurality of people said the economy would improve “a little,” rather than “a lot.” Forty percent said the economy would get a little better in a year, while 14 percent said it would get a lot better.   

This time last year, 49 percent predicted the economy would be better in a year. In 2011, 53 percent said the same. 

A majority of independent voters — 50 percent — believes the economy will improve in a year.

Seventy-seven percent of Democrats predicted an improvement, while 58 percent of Republicans said it will get worse. 

The poll was taken earlier this month after the November jobs report found the unemployment rate had fallen to 7 percent, and the economy added more than 200,000 jobs. 

In a separate survey question, 51 percent said 2013 “has been a good year” — the first time in years that a majority has expressed that opinion. Another 37 percent said it had been a bad year, while 11 percent said it had been a mix. 

Those numbers tended to break down along age groups. 

Sixty percent of young voters said 2013 had been a good year, compared to just 41 percent of people over the age of 65. 

Last year, only 42 percent said 2012 had been a good year. In 2009, that number stood at 34 percent. 

The poll surveyed 1,027 registered voters and has a 3 percent margin or error.