Dem
47
GOP
53
Poll after poll has shown that what people care about most is the economy. When jobs are plentiful, affordability gets the most attention, but if jobs start getting scarce, that will get right up with affordability. Gas going up by $1 is a pain, but worrying about losing your job is even worse. On Friday, the Department of Labor reported that the economy shrunk by 23,000 jobs last month. Economists had expected it to grow by 83,000 jobs, not shrink. The Dept. also revised the statistics for May and June down by 100,000 jobs. Donald Trump had bragged about how great the economy is, in part based on these numbers. The jobless rate is now 4.1%.
If the economy keeps shrinking over the next 3 months while prices keep rising, that could be a double whammy for the Republicans in November, as Democrats will naturally blame the in-party for mismanaging the economy.
On the other hand, an economy losing jobs is clearly not overheated, which will take some pressure off the Fed to raise interest rates to slow it down. Donald Trump is wildly against interest rate increases.
The economy is a big complicated machine, with lots of moving parts. While economists care about these things, the average voters cares about two things: prices, and whether his or her job is secure. And neither of these is looking good right now. (V)