Though no key federal leader whose job includes managing the U.S. economy earns majority confidence from Americans for their economic leadership, confidence in these leaders has improved slightly since 2018.
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The percentages of Americans who report a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in the president, Federal Reserve chairman and both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders' management of the economy have all increased by a few percentage points.
Roughly half of Americans express confidence in each of these leaders' management of the economy, with the group's average rating increasing from 42% in 2018 to 47% in 2019.
These data are from Gallup's annual Economy and Personal Finance poll, conducted April 1-9.
Overall improved confidence in these leaders is likely the result of continued gains in the U.S. stock market, as well as the continuation of a low U.S. unemployment rate, which has mostly remained below 4% in the year since Gallup's last poll on the question.
Though President Donald Trump's handling of the economy remains his greatest strength in the eyes of Americans, confidence in his actions and recommendations on economic matters remains below the 50% mark for the third year in a row.
Ratings of Trump's economic management have been slightly higher than his overall presidential approval ratings so far in his time in office.
His latest confidence rating increased by five percentage points from last year to 47%, nearly matching his rating of 48% in his first year in office.
On average, confidence in Trump's economic management has been lower than both Obama's and Bush's.
Even as their economy roared, more Americans were stressed, angry and worried last year than they have been at most points during the past decade.
Asked about their feelings the previous day, the majority of Americans (55%) in 2018 said they had experienced stress during a lot of the day, nearly half (45%) said they felt worried a lot and more than one in five (22%) said they felt anger a lot.
Each of these figures matches or tops previous highs in the U.S. Additionally, Gallup's latest annual update on the world's emotional state shows Americans were more likely to be stressed and worried than much of the world.
In fact, the 55% of Americans who experienced stress was one of the highest rates out of the 143 countries studied and it beat the global average (35%) by a full 20 percentage points.
The U.S. even ties statistically with Greece, which has led the world on this measure every year since 2012. ■
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