ap gfk poll most now approve of obamas job on unemployment

In early 2015, an Associated Press-GfK poll indicated that Americans’ views of President Barack Obama had improved slightly over the preceding two months, with opinions becoming more positive about the country’s direction and the economy’s health. Specifically, 47% of those surveyed approved of Obama’s overall job performance, up from 41% in December 2014. Additionally, 51% approved of his handling of unemployment, an increase from 44% in the previous poll.

The poll also revealed that nearly half of respondents considered the economy to be in good condition, compared to 41% in December 2014 and only one-third in December 2013. Approval of Obama’s management of the economy rose slightly from 41% to 45% over the same period.

These findings were reported before the release of a strong jobs report in February 2015, which showed that U.S. employers added 257,000 jobs in January, and hourly wages grew by 12 cents to $24.75—the largest gain since September 2008. Hourly pay had increased by 2.2% over the previous year.

Despite these improvements, only 35% of respondents felt that their families had completely or mostly recovered from the economic downturn. Furthermore, just 27% perceived the local job market as being mostly recovered, whereas 55% believed big businesses and 53% thought the stock market had fully bounced back.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted online from January 29 to February 2, 2015, surveying 1,045 adults, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.