The American Research Group poll of voters nationwide released Tuesday shows that President Barack Obama’s job approval rating is unchanged over the last month, after the U.S. added more than 240,000 jobs and lowered the national unemployment rate in January.
The poll shows that 41 percent of the respondents approve of the way Mr. Obama is handling his job, while 53 percent disapprove.
In contrast, a January ARG poll showed that 55 percent of the respondents disapproved of the way Mr. Obama is handling his job duties. The slight improvement of two percentage points is notable, and can be linked to the slight improvement of the unemployment rate, which was reduced to 8.3 percent at the beginning of February.
The U.S. added a total of 243,000 new jobs in the month of January, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The ARG poll also surveyed voters on their approval of how the president is handling the economy. In the poll released Tuesday, 41 percent of the voters approved of the way the president is handling the economy, while 53 percent disapproved.
In January, the president received a much lower approval rating of how he was handling the economy, while 60 percent disapproved.
Among the Republican voters polled, 91 percent disapprove of the way Mr. Obama is handling his job, while just 5 percent approve.
Additionally, the president received mixed reviews from voters concerning whether or not they believe the U.S. economy is improving.
“A total of 45% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse, which is up from 38% in January, but 36% say the national economy is getting better, which is up from 30% in January. Among those saying they approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, 78% say the national economy is getting better, 15% say it is staying the same, and 7% say it is getting worse. Among those saying they disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job as president, 77% say the national economy is getting worse, 17% say it is staying the same, and 4% say it is getting better,” said the ARG in a press release Tuesday.
The job approval rating poll was conducted between February 17th and February 20th among 1,100 Americans nationwide, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
