Folks in the Garden State are pretty down on the economy, whether it’s the state’s or the nation’s, that’s according to a new Rutgers-Eagleton poll. Ashley Koning, head of the Eagleton Center at Rutgers, said people are having trouble making ends meet.
“New Jersey residents do rate New Jersey’s economy as somewhat better than the country’s but we still see evidence that New Jerseyans feel financial strain in their daily lives especially when it comes to affording basic necessities,” she said.
Half or more of those surveyed said they have difficulty affording things like housing, health care, utilities and groceries.
Koning said people don’t see this as a local problem.
“When it comes to ratings of the economy nearly 8 in 10 New Jerseyans give a negative rating to the condition of the national economy and 55% say that the national economy has gotten worse in the past year,” she said.
Koning said while those surveyed were down on the national economy, they were more upbeat, but only a bit, about New Jersey’s economy.
“While residents are slightly more positive about New Jersey’s economy they’re still largely negative with 24% rating it as poor and 46% rating it as only fair,” she said. “Slightly more than half say that New Jersey’s economy is about the same as it was a year ago.”