Americans' economic confidence keeps declining, with seven in ten saying things are getting worse

Americans perceived that economic conditions in the country kept deteriorating in April "despite somewhat positive" news in the area, according to the new edition of a Gallup poll released on Friday.

It's the second month of decline in a row, with the pollster's index now showing it at -34, when +100 would be all Americans believing conditions are excellent or good and -100 considering it poor or getting worse.

The index has been below 0 for practically all of the Joe Biden administration, but had been climbing from -40 to -20 between November of last year and March.

The past two months have seen a sharp drop in the population's assessment of the economy, but it's still far from the lowest point of Biden's presidency, when it hit -58 in June 2021.

The report showed that 22% of respondents described current economic conditions in the country as "excellent" or "good." 33% said it's "only fair" and the remaining 45/46% called it "poor."

It highlighted that the decline came despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing "substantially during most of this period, though it lost some of these gains in the final week of surveying." "At the start of the month, the U.S. Labor Department reported an increase in U.S. jobs, but at a lower rate than in most months over the past year," Gallup added.

The analysis comes a week after another survey by Harris poll showed that over half of Americans (56%) believe the country is facing a recession even though that is not actually the case. The poll, conducted exclusively for The Guardian, shows that the majority of respondents (58%) believe the economy is worsening because of mismanagement by the Biden administration.

Looking ahead, a large majority of Americans believe the situation will continue to deteriorate, with 70% saying the economy is "getting worse." Only about one in four (26%) say it's "getting better."

The perspective is largely a result of negative perspectives regarding inflation and the economy as a whole. According to another Gallup survey, even though immigration surpassed the issues earlier this year, "mentions of this issue have fallen nine percentage points since last month."

"In May, the government (21%), immigration (18%) and the economy in general (17%) are statistically tied as the most important problem in the nation, while 12% of U.S. adults cite inflation," the pollster said.

Americans' political leanings continue to largely influence their perspective, with "Republicans (22%) twice as likely as Democrats (11%) to name the economy" as the most pressing issue facing the country at the moment. Democrats (27%), in turn, "are more likely than Republicans (15%) to mention the government, while "U.S. adults in both party groups are about equally likely to cite inflation -- 14% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats do."