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WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite many signs of a business recovery including improved hiring, Americans are more worried about the economy than they were right after the Great Recession.
A survey released by researchers at Rutgers University says that this pessimism exists despite record Wall Street gains and a host of upbeat economic indicators.
Seventy-one percent of Americans surveyed say the recession put a permanent drag on the economy. In contrast, Rutgers researchers found in a similar survey in November 2009 that only 49 percent thought the downturn would have lasting damage. That earlier 2009 survey was conducted five months after the recession officially ended.
And when the 2009 survey was undertaken, national joblessness was at 9.9 percent of the labor force, compared to the current 6.2 percent.
The survey says people's confidence in the economy has been eroded by the slow pace of improvement during the recovery.
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