Public Pays Scant Attention to Economic Data, Poll Finds

Most people have no idea of the nation’s inflation, unemployment or economic growth rates, a new poll shows.

However, 44% of respondents could come close to naming the current mortgage rate, according to the poll by Louis Harris and Associates, released Tuesday.

But 71% did not know the economic growth rate, 67% didn’t know the inflation rate, 65% couldn’t name the number of new jobs created over the last year and 57% did not know the unemployment rate.

One-quarter came close to guessing the inflation rate, and 30% hazarded reasonably accurate guesses about the unemployment rate. But only 9% came close to guessing the economic growth rate, and only 8% could name the number of new jobs created.

The annual inflation rate was 2.8%, the unemployment rate 5.5% and the economic growth rate 4.1% at the time of the survey. The number of new jobs added was 3.5 million and the average mortgage rate was 9.16% to 9.18%.

The telephone poll was conducted April 16-20 among a cross-section of 1,255 adults nationwide. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.