Thirty-nine percent say they believe the economy will perform “about the same” in 2019 as it did in 2018, according to a new American Barometer survey.
The poll also found that 33 percent said they believed the economy would perform better, while 28 percent said they believed it would perform worse.
The Department of Labor announced last month that the economy surpassed estimates, and added 250,000 jobs in October.
Republican pollster Ed Goeas said that respondents who said they felt the economy would perform “about the same” in 2019 probably felt positive about the state of the economy.
“The consumer confidence over the last year and a half has been extremely high, highest we’ve seen in decades. For them to say ‘about the same,’ you have to assume they continue to feel positive about the economy,” Goeas, president and CEO of the Tarrance Group, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
President Trump and Republicans have touted recent economic growth, saying it is a result of their economic policies.
The survey revealed on a partisan divide on the question, with 54 percent of Republicans saying they believed the economy would perform better, while only 16 percent of Democrats said the same.
Ten percent of Republicans said they believed the economy would perform worse than it did in 2018, and 40 percent of Democrats said they also thought the economy would be worse off.
Thirty-six percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Democrats said they thought the economy would perform the same as it did in 2018.
The American Barometer is a daily survey conducted by the HarrisX polling company on behalf of Hill.TV.
The poll was conducted on December 1-2 among 1,000 registered voters. The sampling margin or error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
— Julia Manchester
hilltv copyright
