06 06 2014

Americans think economy won't recover until 2017

According to economists, the Great Recession ended five years ago, but most Americans still don't feel recovered from the crisis. They expect a full recovery will take until 2017 or longer.

In CNNMoney's American Dream Poll, conducted by ORC International, 61% of Americans said they believe it will take another three years or more to recover from the 2008 financial crisis.

Some respondents were even more pessimistic: 16% said they believe the economy will never recover.

Democrats were generally more optimistic about the economy than Republicans. Among Republicans, 1 in 5 people said they believe the economy will never recover, whereas 1 in 10 Democrats said the same. (Independents were in between the two extremes).

U.S. recovery hits 5-year mark, but long way to go
The results aren't entirely surprising, given the jobs recovery has been the slowest on record, and home prices are nowhere near their pre-recession peak. Most of the income gains over the last few years have gone to the richest 1% of Americans.

Economists surveyed by CNNMoney are slightly less pessimistic than the broader U.S. population, but even they expect a full recovery will take two to three more years.

The economy is showing some signs of recovery. The job market has been on the mend for four years now, albeit slowly, and gross domestic product (GDP) -- the broadest measure of economic output -- is near an all-time high.