These are the topline results of a YouGov/Economist survey of 1000 US adults interviewed May 3-5, 2014 on President Obama. The results show that attitudes towards President Obama are slowly improving. The margin of error is 4.2%.
Click here to see full tables and demographic crossbreaks
Have you heard mostly positive or mostly negative news stories about the economy, or have you not heard much news at all about the economy?
Mostly positive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12%
Equally positive and negative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39%
Mostly negative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41%
Not heard much news about the economy at all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
When you have discussed the economy with your friends and family, has the discussion been mostly positive or mostly negative, or have you not discussed the economy at all with your friends and family?
Mostly positive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%
Equally positive and negative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%
Mostly negative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47%
Not discussed the economy at all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Please give us your best guess to the following question. How has the unemployment rate in the country changed from January 2009, when President Obama first took office, to April 2014?
Unemployment rate decreased by 1% or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
Unemployment rate decreased by between 0% and 1% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Unemployment rate is the same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11%
Unemployment rate increased by between 0% and 1% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
Unemployment rate increased by 1% or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26%
Don’t know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16%
Do you think President Barack Obama is doing enough to create new jobs for Americans or should he do more?
Doing enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24%
Should do more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13%
Do you think Republicans in Congress are doing enough to create new jobs for Americans or should they do more?
Doing enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12%
Should do more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17%
Do you think Democrats in Congress are doing enough to create new jobs for Americans or should they do more?
Doing enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Should do more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Looking ahead, which would you say is more likely, that in the country as a whole unemployment rates during THE NEXT YEAR will increase, decrease or remain about the same?
Unemployment rates will be a lot lower than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat lower than they are today . . . . . . . . 22%
Unemployment rates will be about the same as they are today . . . . . . . . . . .30%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat higher than they are today . . . . . . . 19%
Unemployment rates will be a lot higher than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Looking ahead, which would you say is more likely, that in the country as a whole unemployment rates during THE NEXT FIVE YEARS will increase, decrease or remain about the same?
Unemployment rates will be a lot lower than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat lower than they are today . . . . . . . . 27%
Unemployment rates will be about the same as they are today . . . . . . . . . . .17%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat higher than they are today . . . . . . . 19%
Unemployment rates will be a lot higher than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
In general, how many of the statistics reported by the government are reliable and accurate?
None . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12%
A small portion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37%
About half . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26%
Most . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21%
All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
The government released April’s unemployment numbers on Friday. Do you think the government numbers are accurate or do you think there are more unemployed people or fewer unemployed people?
More unemployed people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59%
The government numbers are accurate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16%
Fewer unemployed people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Don’t know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19%
Do you think the health care reform law should be expanded, kept the same, or repealed?
Expanded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%
Kept the same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Repealed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
From all that you know now, has the health care reform law been a complete success, a complete failure, or something in between?
A complete failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23%
More of a failure than a success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
Equal amount of both failure and success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17%
More of a success than a failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19%
A complete success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5%
Too early to tell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as President?
Strongly approve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18%
Somewhat approve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28%
Somewhat disapprove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Strongly disapprove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4%
