Even with improving numbers, American voters still feel that the US economy is still going down.
Barack Obama might have felt triumphant this week when he offered his final budget blueprint. The unemployment rate has gone down to 4.9 percent which is less than one half of the 10 percent peak of the Great Recession. Wages are beginning to rise and jobs at the manufacturing sector are at its seven-year high.
Despite all these, many Americans are feeling depressed about the economy, even in areas where the jobless rate is significantly low, making it a source of frustration to the US president.
This situation is like déjà vu of 2014, when US citizens also felt gloomy about their economy despite the positive numbers the country is enjoying. The same question was in the air: "Why are Americans still gloomy about the economy"?
In October 2014, the IMF predicted that the US will emerge as one of the world's fastest growing advanced economies in 2015. The country's economy then was the exception to many countries which have experienced economic stagnation.
Today, according to the analysis of a number of economists, the recession has ended in June 2009. However, approximately 72 percent of US citizens surveyed in late 2015 believe that the country's economy is still in recession.
"Some of it has been that the things macroeconomic indicators are measuring are not things that have trickled down into people's paychecks, the way people are living in an everyday way," said Robert Jones, the CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, a non-partisan organization which conducted the poll.
Jones noted that the survey conducted by PRRI revealed that a majority of Americans cited the lack of funding for public schools and lack opportunity for young people to be the country's major problems.
"On the ground, people are feeling it pretty hard," added Jones.
