• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 7, 2009

Results of the latest Harris Poll of 2,498 U.S. adults surveyed online show that there is a slight sense of optimism regarding the economy. 46% of Americans believe the economy will improve in the coming year, while 32% say it will stay the same and 22% believe it will get worse. In May, just under two in five believed the economy would improve in the coming year while over one-quarter said they thought it would get worse.

Expectations Of The Economy In One Year (Base: All Adults, % Of Respondents)
	April	May	Aug.
Improve	39%	38	46
Stay the same	35	35	32
Get worse	26	27	22
Source: Harris Poll, August 2009

One-quarter of Americans believe that their household financial condition will be better in six months while half say it will remain the same and 28% believe it will get worse. the 28% who say their household's financial condition will get worse in the next six months is the lowest number who believes that since this question was first asked in February of 2008.

Anticipated Households' Financial Conditions In 6 Months (Base: All Adults, Percent Of Respondents By Category)
Region	Total	East	Midwest	South	West
Better (Net)	24%	23	19	27	26
Much better	5	5	4	5	5
Somewhat better	20	18	15	22	21
Remain the same	48	53	51	46	44
Worse (Net)	28	24	30	27	30
Somewhat worse	22	19	24	21	24
Much worse	6	5	6	6	6
Source: Harris Poll, August 2009

Three in five Americans say they are not concerned that the main income earner might become unemployed in the next six months while 39% are concerned. However, 71% of Americans rate the current job market of their region of the country as bad, with just 8% saying it is good. This is almost unchanged from June when 72% said the current job market was bad and 9% said it was good.

Concern Over Becoming Unemployed (Base: All adults, % of Respondents)
	April 2009	June 2009	Aug. 2009
Concerned (Net)	43%	42	39
Very concerned	17	16	14
Somewhat concerned	26	27	25
Not Concerned (Net)	57	58	61
Not very concerned	26	27	28
Not at all concerned	31	31	32
Source: Harris Poll, August 2009

Looking ahead six months, one-quarter of Americans (25%) say that the job market in their region will be worse in that time, 28% say it will be better and almost half (47%) believe it will remain the same. Here people are a little optimistic as in June, just one in five (21%) believed the job market in their region would be better in six months while almost one-third (32%) said it will be worse.

Expectations For Job Market In Six Months  (Base: All adults, % of Respondents)
	Jan. 2009	April 2009	June 2009	Aug. 2009
Better (Net)	15%	23	21	28
Much better	1	3	2	2
Somewhat better	14	20	19	26
Remain the same	36	42	47	47
Worse (Net)	49	36	32	25
Somewhat worse	36	29	24	19
Much worse	14	7	8	6
Source: Harris Poll, August 2009

The report concludes that "People are currently feeling cautiously optimistic on the economy, but until they feel strong, Americans are not likely to be opening up their wallets and spending again... needed to really help spur the economy along."

Please visit Harris Interactive here for more information.