In anticipation of next Tuesday's department report on April consumer income and spending, overall economic growth for the first quarter of 2016 is 0.8 percent. This is above earlier expectations of 0.5 per cent, economists say, but not enough to signal "good growth."
As the United States finishes its seventh year of recovery following the 2007 crisis dubbed "The Great Recession," experts and workers expect to see clearer signs of recovery. But polls show that, in general, Americans remain pessimistic about their country's economic situation.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey indicates that only 42 percent of adults describe the US economy as good, and just 23 percent think the economy will improve this year. Just a third said they'd be very confident of finding a job if they needed one.
An AP-NORC survey found that 52 percent of Americans with a bachelor's degree or higher and 63 percent with a high school education or less believe the nation's economy is poor, while 48 and 37 percent, respectively, think it is good.
"Some view the slow growth as a sign that the economy has never escaped the threat of another recession," reported Press TV.
"Nothing has ignited the robust economic growth that Americans remember enjoying until the Great Recession struck in late 2007."
Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, stated that nearly 60 percent of all income gains between 2009 and 2014 went to families in the top 1 percent of earners.
The United States has endured a sluggish economic recovery from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Despite that the Great Recession was officially declared over seven years ago, the United States is still struggling to return to pre-2007 numbers.
