For the first time since August 2021, polling by YouGov has shown approval among the general public — generally including both all respondents and just registered voters — for Joe Biden’s handling of his role as president ahead of respondents’ disapproval.
The figures, from polling completed January 10, showed 47 percent of overall respondents approving of Biden’s job performance and 45 percent disapproving. Among registered voters, Biden’s approval was at 50 percent, while his disapproval was at 47 percent. He was still down among independents — although up by nine percent among respondents identified as suburban residents. Biden also still had the overwhelming majority of Democrats and those identified as 2020 voters for his ticket expressing approval, at 84 and 85 percent, respectively. Perhaps surprisingly, he also nabbed the approval of 18 percent of respondents identified as Republican.
Biden and the Democratic Party can point to a growing series of recent wins, including consistently low unemployment and declining rates of inflation, according to federal metrics. The average price for a gallon of regular gas on Wednesday was also below the level a year prior — and a month ago, according to AAA. Energy costs significantly weigh on several federal measurements of inflation.
In the YouGov polling, substantially more respondents said they felt inflation was a bigger problem presently facing the United States than unemployment — implicitly attesting to the continued strength in the job market. A report from the Labor Department showed a December 2022 level of job growth that yet again beat expectations that this time — per Dow Jones figures — rested at an estimate of 200,000 nonfarm jobs added last month. The actual figure was 223,000, with the reported unemployment rate also once again sinking a bit to just 3.5 percent. That rate hasn’t gone above 3.7 percent for what is approaching a year.
The Biden administration has taken several high-profile steps to support the domestic job market, including involvement in solving delays in the supply chain that could have culminated in a decreased ability for retail and other establishments to function as designed, impacting both ownership and employment. The high-profile infrastructure spending package Biden signed earlier in his presidency also doubles as support for the job market — as does the recent auction opportunity opened up by federal authorities for the rights to run planned wind power operations off the country’s West Coast. A union official estimated tens of thousands of jobs could stem from those efforts, which will need to begin much earlier than wind power will be made available because of building out the required physical infrastructure.
Image: Gage Skidmore/ Creative Commons
