Gallup: Economic confidence holds strong in January

For the first time since the recession, economic confidence stayed in positive territory for an entire month, according to a Gallup survey released Tuesday.

The average index score in January was +3, up 8 points from December. This represents the highest jump between months in more than a year, Gallup said.

{mosads}Gallup’s economic confidence index averages people’s ratings of economic conditions and whether the economy is improving or getting worse.

More than a quarter of people last month said the economy is either “excellent” or “good” while about the same amount said it is “poor.”

Meanwhile, half of people surveyed said the economy is improving and 45 percent said it’s getting worse.  

Middle and lower-income people registered a positive rating for the first time in seven years and upper-income people, whose households make at least $90,000 per year, reached the highest level yet of +15. 

Among Democratic voters, their confidence level reached +25 in January; Democrats have recorded positive confidence scores since early 2012. Republicans, by contrast, registered a score of -19 last month. 

The poll surveyed 14,684 adults between Jan. 2 and 31 with a 1 percentage point margin of error.