Essential Report
Economic issues
Q. Do you think the following have become better or worse compared to 12 months ago?
Total better | Total worse | A lot better | A little better | No change | A little worse | A lot worse | Don’t know | Total better Oct 2014 | Total worse Oct 2014 | |||
Company profits | 34% | 23% | 10% | 24% | 26% | 15% | 8% | 17% | 31% | 19% | ||
Your personal financial situation | 19% | 41% | 3% | 16% | 38% | 25% | 16% | 2% | 16% | 44% | ||
Wages | 13% | 36% | 1% | 12% | 44% | 24% | 12% | 8% | 9% | 36% | ||
The economy overall | 16% | 55% | 2% | 14% | 23% | 36% | 19% | 7% | 18% | 50% | ||
National debt | 14% | 53% | 2% | 12% | 22% | 27% | 26% | 12% | 15% | 51% | ||
Job security | 10% | 53% | 2% | 8% | 31% | 30% | 23% | 7% | 6% | 61% | ||
Un-employment | 8% | 61% | 1% | 7% | 25% | 37% | 24% | 7% | 11% | 60% | ||
Electricity costs | 12% | 66% | 2% | 10% | 18% | 32% | 34% | 5% | 7% | 67% | ||
Cost of living | 6% | 72% | 1% | 5% | 19% | 41% | 31% | 3% | 6% | 72% |
A substantial majority believe that, in the last 12 months, cost of living (72%), electricity costs (66%) and unemployment (61%) have all got worse.
The only economic measure that has got better is company profits (34% better/23% worse).
Compared the last time this question was asked in October, the main shifts have been the economy overall (worse up from 50% to 55%) and job security (worse down from 61% to 53%).

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