There may still be a great deal of uncertainty on where the job market is heading, but people seem to be feeling a little more positive overall on the economy, according to a Harris poll released today.
One-third of Americans say they expect the economy to improve in the coming year, one-quarter say they expect it to get worse and two in five say they expect it to stay the same.
In December, just three in 10 said they expected the economy to improve in the coming year, while 45 percent thought it would stay the same and one-quarter said it would get worse.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 3,171 adults surveyed online between Feb. 14-21 by Harris Interactive.
The one lagging indicator during the economic recovery has been jobs. And it is also lagging in the minds of Americans, but there are indications people are more optimistic.
Currently, three in five U.S. adults rate the current job market in their region of the nation as bad, one-quarter rate it as neither good nor bad and 15 percent say it is good.
Last month, almost two-thirds of Americans rated it as bad and 13 percent said it was good. While these numbers may not seem all that strong, they are the highest since July 2008 when half of Americans said the job market was bad and three in 10 said it was good.
Looking at this by region, there are some brighter spots. One-quarter of Easterners say the job market in their region is good and just half say it is bad.
The South and the Midwest are in the middle with three in five saying the job market in their region is bad while 17 percent of Southerners say it is good and 13 percent of Midwesterners say that.
The West seems to be the sore spot for jobs. Seven in 10 Westerners say the job market in their region is bad while just 7 percent say it is good.
Looking ahead, half of Americans say the job market in their region of the nation will be the same in the next six months while three in 10 say it will be better and one in five say it will be worse. This is virtually unchanged since January.
