Political affiliation has a strong influence on the way
Americans view the country's economic prospects. Seventy-four
percent of Democrats feel the economy will continue to recover,
while 65 percent of Republicans say they are not confident the
recovery will last. Independents are nearly equally divided with
46 percent confident with the recovery and 51 percent expressing
pessimism. Factors that influence confidence Though confidence
in the economy is strongly correlated along party lines,
improvements in key economic indicators would bolster optimism
across the political spectrum. "When people think of the
recovery, they think of the unemployment rate," says Chris
Christopher, senior principal economist at IHS, an economic
consulting firm. "It's a lagging indicator, and it's very high.
People are jumping out of the labor force, and people know of
friends who are either unemployed or underemployed," he says.
Even with the significant decline in the headline unemployment
number from 9.1 percent in September to