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Connecticut's Slow Recovery From the Recession

Chion Wolf

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Tucker/Morning%20Edition%2010-01-2012.mp3

A new UConn/Hartford Courant poll suggests Nutmeggers may have been hit harder by the economic downturn than the rest of the nation.

Friday's poll of 517 Connecticut voters paints a bleak economic picture for Connecticut citizens. Seventeen percent of those polled say they have lost a job in the last three years, and 25 percent say they have seen their wages actually decrease. Both of these numbers are higher than the national average.

"Connecticut has been slower to come out. We were about equal with the country for much of the very slow recovery from '09 to '11 and we have performed worse since 2011," said Hartford Courant business columnist Dan Haar. "As you know, perception is reality when it comes to polling. People don't feel good now and therefore, they're going to answer questions more in the negative, even empirical questions than their counterparts across the country."

But the polls first question Are you better off than you were fours years ago tells a different story. Forty-three percent of those polled say they are better off, 34 percent say they are worse off.  

Haar says whether those polled felt better or worse off, depends on who you are voting for in November. "What that tells us is that people are thinking about their political affiliation. If you're not an Obama supporter, you're less likely to feel good about the last four years."

The survey also showed that half of those polled have made big changes in how they shop for groceries; 21 percent said they had to sell something of value to pay a bill, and 73 percent of those polled agree that federal lawmakers should do more to create jobs. The poll has a margin of error of of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

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Ray Hardman is Connecticut Public’s Arts and Culture Reporter. He is the host of CPTV’s Emmy-nominated original series Where Art Thou? Listeners to Connecticut Public Radio may know Ray as the local voice of Morning Edition, and later of All Things Considered.

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