Strengthening the economy has long topped the list of the public’s priorities, but that number moved above the 80% mark following the financial meltdown of 2008 and now stands at 86%. More than eight-in-ten Democrats, Republicans and independents agree it is the most pressing issue. For the public overall, improving the job situation continues to rank second at 79%, a number that also rose as the Great Recession unfolded.

The most dramatic change in recent years has been the emphasis on reducing the deficit: it ranked in ninth place in 2009 when 53% said it should be the top priority, and now has risen to third place, at 72%. While Democrats and independents both put the deficit in third place in order of importance, Republicans consider it a greater priority than improving the jobs situation. (See our interactive chart, Twelve Years of the Public’s Top Priorities).

The public’s views of current economic conditions remain largely negative.

Overall, 43% rate current economic conditions in this country today as only fair, while nearly as many (40%) say they are poor, according to our March 13-17 survey. Very few describe economic conditions as excellent or good (16%).

When it comes to views of the national economy, most Americans do not think a recovery has taken hold.

Just 27% say that the economy is recovering, while 31% say it is not yet recovering but will recover soon and 40% say it will be a long time before the economy recovers. These views have changed little over the past year.

The first two years of the recovery have been an uneven one, with the mean net wealth for the upper 7% of households increasing while the lower 93% declined.

From 2009 to 2011, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. These wide variances were driven by the fact that the stock and bond market rallied during the 2009 to 2011 period while the housing market remained flat. That benefited households with high net worth whose wealth is more concentrated in financial holdings compared to the less-affluent whose wealth is more concentrated in their homes.

More than four years after the start of the recession, many Americans — particularly those with low family incomes — are experiencing financial problems.

Overall, 42% of the public say they have faced one or more of the following in the past year: difficulty obtaining or paying for medical care; problems paying their rent or mortgage; or losing a job, according to our March 13-17 survey. Among those with family incomes of less than $30,000 a year, 60% have faced one or more of these problems in the past year.

For the first time in Barack Obama’s presidency, more say they expect economic conditions to be worse a year from now than better.

Today, 32% in the March 13-17 survey say they expect the economy to be worse a year from now, compared to 25% in January. About four-in-ten (41%) expect conditions to be about the same as now and 25% expect them to be better.

While many Americans say their state is experiencing budget problems, there is a modest improvement from two years ago.

Ratings of state economic conditions are more positive than national economic ratings, according to our March survey. Just 16% describe national economic conditions as excellent or good; this compares with 30% who describe the economy of the state they live in as excellent or good in the current survey.

Read more Pew Research findings on Economic Policy.

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The median income of American households decreased by as much in the two years after the official end of the Great Recession as it did during the recession itself. The latest estimates from the Census Bureau show that the median income for U.S. households in 2011 was $50,054. In 2009, the year the Great Recession ended, the median income of U.S. households had been $52,195 (in 2011 dollars). Thus, in the two years since the end of the recession, median household income has fallen by 4.1%.

The decrease in household income from 2009 to 2011 almost exactly equaled the decrease in income in the two years of the recession. During the Great Recession, the median U.S. household income (in 2011 dollars) dropped from $54,489 in 2007 to $52,195 in 2009, a loss of 4.2%. By this yardstick, the recovery from the Great Recession is bypassing the nation’s households.

As the 2012 presidential candidates prepare their closing arguments to America’s middle class, they are courting a group that has endured a lost decade for economic well-being. Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some — but by no means all — of its characteristic faith in the future, according to a new Pew Research survey and analysis of data from U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

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Fully 85% of Americans who describe themselves as middle class say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living. This downbeat take comes at the end of a decade in which mean family incomes declined for Americans overall for the first time since the end of World War II. But the middle-income tier – defined as all adults with annual household incomes that are two-thirds to double the national median — is the only one that also shrunk in size, a trend that has continued for four decades.

In 2011, the middle-income tier included 51% of all adults, down from 61% in 1971. This has been accompanied by a dispersion of the population into the economic tiers both above and below, with slightly more moving into the upper tier. But only the upper tier has increased its share of the nation’s total household income. In 2010, the upper tier took in 46% of the nation’s household income, up from 29% in 1970. The middle tier took in 45%, down from 62%. The lower tier dropped to 9% from 10%.

Appeals to the beleaguered middle class have been at the heart of the 2012 presidential campaign. The new Pew Research survey, conducted from July 16 to July 26, finds that neither candidate has closed the deal with this group, but that President Obama is in somewhat better shape than his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.

The survey also finds that the middle class blames Congress more than any of the institutions or entities tested in this survey for its hard economic times in the last decade.

These are among the principal findings from the Pew Research analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Bank trend data, as well as a new nationwide Pew Research survey of more than 2,500 adults, including 1,287 who describe themselves as middle class.

Read the full report.

Read the full report.

Hispanics and Asians experienced a faster rate of growth in jobs than other groups. Their employment levels are higher now than just before the start of the recession in December 2007, a milestone not yet reached by white and black workers.

The story is the same when one looks at the jobs recovery for immigrants and native-born workers. Immigrants, the vast majority of whom are Hispanic or Asian, are experiencing a faster rate of growth in employment than are native-born workers. This difference is also roughly in line with the difference in the growth in their working-age populations during the recovery.

Although jobs growth for Hispanics and Asians was more rapid than for other groups, it merely
kept pace with the growth in their working-age (ages 16 and older) populations. The slower rate
of jobs growth for whites and blacks reflects the relatively slow growth in their populations.
Thus, the share of each group’s population that is employed, the employment rate, has barely
risen since the end of the recession.

Read the full report which includes these sections:

• An overview of employment gains during the economic recovery
• The economic recovery for Hispanics and non-Hispanics
• The economic recovery for native-born and foreign-born workers
• The economic recovery for men and women
• The shortfall in the employment level

More than three-quarters of young adults ages 25 to 34 who have moved back home with their families during the Great Recession and the troubled economic years that followed say they’re satisfied with their living arrangements and upbeat about their future finances.

Those arrangements have benefited their parents as well: almost half of boomerang children say they have paid rent and almost nine-in-ten have helped with household expenses.

One reason young adults who are living with their parents may be relatively upbeat about their situation is that this has become such a widespread phenomenon. Among adults ages 25 to 34, 61% say they have friends or family members who have moved back in with their parents over the past few years because of economic conditions. Furthermore, three-in-ten parents of adult children (29%) report that a child of theirs has moved back in with them in the past few years because of the economy.

While young adults living at home may be satisfied with their situations, nearly eight-in-ten say they don’t currently have enough money to lead the kind of life they want, compared with 55% of their same-aged peers who aren’t living with their parents. Even so, large majorities of both groups (77% versus 90%) say they either have enough money now to lead the kind of life they want or expect they will in the future.

These findings are based on a new Pew Research Center survey of 2,048 adults nationwide conducted Dec. 6-19, 2011, that explores the family dynamics and economics of multi-generational living at a time when the number of multi-generational family households in the country continues to rise.

Read the full report for these findings:

• Who are the boomerang kids and how widespread a phenomenon do they represent?
• How living at home affects outlook, relationships
• The rise of multi-generational households
• The economics of multi-generational living
• Financial connections across generations