Economic optimism was at the highest level of President Obama’s tenure in April, according to a new CNN/ORC poll, and his approval rating was net positive.
Fifty-two percent of respondents to the poll said that economic conditions were very good or somewhat good, versus 48 percent who said that they were somewhat or very poor.
The last time the majority of respondents said that economic conditions were good in the poll was in September of 2007, before the official start of the recession and well before Obama took office in 2009.
The good economic news has translated into higher approval ratings for President Obama. Of the adults polled, 48 percent approved of the way Obama was handling his job as president, while 47 percent said they disapproved.
That result marked the first time Obama received a net positive approval rating since May of 2013 in the poll.
The U.S. has enjoyed a string of good economic news in the wake of a long and slow recovery that saw unemployment elevated for years. At 5.5 percent in March, the unemployment rate has fallen by over a percentage point in the last year. At 70 months, the ongoing economic recovery is already almost a year older than the average postwar expansion, as calculated by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The improved labor market conditions in recent months have not necessarily meant higher approval ratings for Obama in past months, even as measures of consumer confidence have shown people feeling better about their families’ situations.
The CNN/ORC poll was conducted April 16-19. ORC International interviewed 1,018 adults by landline and cellphone and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
