The number of Americans who are expecting the economy to get better in 2022 is falling sharply as more households sour in their outlooks for the future.

In the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that only 35% of Americans considered the U.S. economy to be good versus 65% who considered it poor. Last month, the same poll found that 45% of Americans thought that the economy was in a good place, but now the numbers are closer to where they were at the start of 2021.

On the question of whether they believe the economy will be better in 2022, 47% said that they feel it will get worse.

Throughout the year, the economy has been battered by a mix of forces that contributed to the pessimism. The COVID-19 Delta variant increased the number of deaths and infections nationwide with the current death toll standing at 743,410, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the number of cases has been steadily decreasing and the U.S. vaccination rate inches higher, it is clear the battle against COVID-19 is not over.

The Biden administration has been touting the strength of the economic recovery after enacting a significant stimulus bill earlier in the year and through its efforts to get more Americans vaccinated. However, the aftershocks of COVID-19 on global supply chains and the speed of the economic recovery left many businesses ill-equipped to meet an explosion of demand.

As a result of ongoing supply problems and increased government spending, inflation has surged to the highest in decades. Both the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index show that prices for core goods like food and energy have gone up in the last year.

This growing pessimism does not bode well for President Joe Biden, whom the poll found has lost the confidence of many Americans on his handling of the economy. According to the AP-NORC poll, 58% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy, while the FiveThirtyEight project finds that 43.8% disapprove of his handling of COVID-19.

Even among Biden’s Democratic Party, economic pessimism appears to have set in with only 51% of identified voters optimistic that the economy will improve. In contrast, 74% of Republicans believe that the economy is set to get worse before it gets any better.

These numbers appear to be resonating with the president. Biden has placed his hopes on Congress passing two multi-trillion-dollar spending bills that he hopes will give his party a legislative victory ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The administration has also moved to address the supply chain bottlenecks that are contributing to U.S. supply shortages and inflation.

Biden carried these goals to the recent G-20 Summit in Rome. He met with his international counterparts to do more to ease supply chain shortages and continue to do more to address COVID-19.

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