SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Californians have a less negative view of
the state's economy this year and are much more optimistic that it
will improve over the next year, according to a new statewide poll.
The percentage of registered voters who described California as
being in bad economic times dropped from 75 percent in 2003 to 53
percent this year, according to a nonpartisan Field Poll released
Thursday. Twenty-four percent of people said the state was in good
economic times.
Also, 44 percent of people believe the economy will improve over
the next year, while only 14 percent believe it will get worse.
Last year, 30 percent of people thought the economy would improve
and 30 percent thought it would get worse.
More respondents also said their economic situation had
improved, with 41 percent saying they were better off than a year
ago and 27 percent saying they were worse off.
``You have to recall where we were last year,'' Field Poll
director Mark DiCamillo said. ``Last year, we were getting record
low numbers on a lot of different measures in California
political leadership, the Legislature, the right-track, wrong-track
questions and also very pessimistic numbers on the economy. Now
things aren't as bad. But we really just went back to where we were
two years ago, which wasn't that positive to begin with.''
More than three-quarters of respondents are concerned about
unemployment, with 35 percent saying it is a very serious problem
and 43 percent saying it was somewhat serious.
There were big differences along party lines, with 61 percent of
Democrats holding negative views about the economy, compared to 43
percent of Republicans. Democrats were also less optimistic about
the next year.
``This is definitely related to the presidential election,''
DiCamillo said. ``Democrats have given up on Bush and in some ways
that ties to their views of economy. They think the economy is
worse than Republicans do.''
The San Francisco Bay area remained the most negative region as
Silicon Valley was the hardest-hit area by the recent economic
downturn. But people in the area are much more optimistic than a
year ago. The percentage of people who believe the state is in a
bad economic time fell from 89 percent to 59 percent, which is 6
points higher than the state as a whole.
``The Bay Area has been the caboose in this particular
downturn,'' DiCamillo said. ``That's not always the case. In the
early '90s, the Bay Area region led the state out of the recession
while Los Angeles was the laggard. This slowdown is the reverse.''
The poll, conducted from July 30 through Aug. 8, was based on
interviews with 602 likely voters and had a sampling error of plus
or minus 4.1 percentage points.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)