A decade after the 2008 financial crisis, the public is about evenly split on whether the U.S. economic system is more secure today than it was then. About half of Americans (48%) say the system is more secure today than it was before the 2008 crisis, while roughly as many (46%) say it is no more secure.
Republicans are now far more likely to view the system as more secure than they were during Barack Obama’s presidency. Views among Democrats have moved in the opposite direction.
Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say the nation’s economic system unfairly favors powerful interests, compared with a third (33%) who say it is generally fair to most Americans.
For the first time since we first asked the question in 2014, a clear majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (57%) now say the economic system is generally fair to most Americans.
And while wide majorities of Democrats and Democratic leaners have long said that the U.S. economic system unfairly favors powerful interests, the share who say this has increased since 2016 – from 76% then to 84% today.
Partisan differences extend to beliefs about why people are poor or rich.
Democrats and Democratic leaners are more likely to say the reason someone is poor generally has more to do with circumstances beyond their control (69%) than with a lack of effort (18%). Among Republicans and Republican leaners, a larger share says a person is poor more because of a lack of effort (48%) than because of circumstances beyond an individual’s control (31%).
Among U.S. adults overall, 52% point to circumstances beyond a person’s control, while 31% say it is a lack of effort on his or her part; 12% volunteer both are equal contributors.
Despite a strong labor market, wage growth in the U.S. has lagged economists’ expectations. Adjusted for inflation, today’s average hourly wage has about as much purchasing power as it did in 1978. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today.
Meanwhile, wage gains have gone largely to the highest earners. Since 2000, usual weekly wages have risen 3% (in real terms) among workers in the lowest tenth of the earnings distribution and 4.3% among the lowest quarter. But among people in the top tenth of the distribution, real wages have risen a cumulative 15.7%, to $2,112 a week – nearly five times the usual weekly earnings of the bottom tenth ($426).
Few American homeowners were spared from the broad housing collapse a decade ago, but Generation Xers were hit particularly hard. Yet Gen Xers are the only generation of households to recover the wealth they lost during the Great Recession.
The full wealth recovery of households headed by Gen Xers stems from several factors.
Americans’ views of free trade agreements, which turned more negative during the 2016 presidential campaign, are now about as positive as they were prior to the campaign. And when asked about proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, more say they would be bad for the country than say they would be good.
Globally, migrants sent an estimated $574 billion to their home countries in 2016, a 1.4% drop from 2015. But in Latin America and the Caribbean, remittances rose to $74.3 billion, a 7.4% increase from the previous year ($69.2 billion).
The public’s improving economic outlook is reflected in its policy agenda for President Trump and Congress in the coming year. Economic issues – improving the job situation, strengthening the economy and reducing the budget deficit – are viewed as less important policy priorities than they were just a few years ago.
Americans are apprehensive about a future in which machines take on more of the work now done by humans, and most are supportive of policies aimed at cushioning the economic impact of widespread automation.
Although the overall U.S. poverty rate declined for the second straight year in 2016, the share of the U.S. poor population in severe poverty reached its highest point in at least 20 years. These families also saw their incomes fall further below the poverty line.
Public debt has increased sharply in many countries in recent years, particularly during and after the Great Recession. Globally, the total amount of government debt now exceeds $63.1 trillion, with the U.S. claiming more debt (nearly $20 trillion in 2016) than any other country analyzed.
Ahead of the German election, most Germans are satisfied with the state of the economy and are broadly positive toward the political establishment that has led the nation through the post-World War II era.
U.S. employers planned to pay H-1B workers a median salary of $80,000 in fiscal 2016, up from about $69,000 a decade earlier. The 2016 median salary reported for H-1B visa applicants was higher than that of some U.S. workers in similar high-skill jobs such as computer and mathematical occupations.
The U.S. national debt – which stood at $19.845 trillion as of July 31 – is now bigger than the country’s gross domestic product. Read a primer on the national debt, the debt limit and interest payments on the nation’s credit line.
People around the globe identify ISIS and climate change as the leading threats to national security. ISIS is named as the top threat in a total of 18 countries surveyed – mostly concentrated in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States. In 13 countries, mostly in Latin America and Africa, publics identify global climate change as the topmost threat.
Also, cyberattacks from other countries and the condition of the global economy are named as major threats by global medians of 51% each.
Across 38 nations polled by Pew Research Center, a median of 42% say the U.S. is the world’s leading economy, while 32% name China. However, over the past year, perceptions of relative U.S. economic power have declined in many of America’s key trading partners and allies.
