President Joe Biden touted several ways in which the economy has improved over the last year in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
"I ran for president to fundamentally change things, to make sure our economy works for everyone so we can all feel that pride in what we do," the president said before highlighting record-low unemployment, massive job growth and inflation's gradual decline.
While he asserted there's still work to be done, his overall message was one of optimism.
The American people, however, aren't feeling as great about the current state of their finances. Half of Americans say their finances are worse off now than a year ago, according to a recent Gallup poll. Just 35% say their finances are in better shape now.
There is some good news: 60% of consumers are optimistic that they will be better off a year from now, according to the survey.
Lower-earners feel worst about their current situations, but optimism stays consistent
Biden reiterated his commitment to building up the middle class in his address, saying his goal is "to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down."
His reasoning is that "when the middle class does well, the poor have a ladder up and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well."
The middle and upper classes seem to be faring well currently, Gallup found. Among middle-earners — those earning between $40,000 and $100,000 — 49% say their finances are worse now than a year ago. That share drops to 43% of those earning $100,000 or more.
But 61% of those who earn $40,000 or less annually say their finances are worse now than a year ago.
On the other hand, the share of those who think their finances will be better a year from now doesn't change much by income. Americans earning $40,000 or less are the most optimistic, with 62% saying their finances will be better a year from now, compared with 60% of those earning between $40,000 and $99,999 and 59% of those earning $100,000 or more.
With recession fears still floating around and layoffs impacting thousands of workers, it might seem surprising that optimism is still high. However, people are more reactive to the actual state of affairs than worried that things will get worse, says Jeff Jones, senior editor at Gallup.
"When we have people worried about the national economy, they tend not to think things are bad until they actually are really bad," Jones tells CNBC Make It.
"We have inflation now, there's a lot of talk about the recession possibly coming, a lot of people who think we are in a recession, but until it happens, I think people are still going to be pretty optimistic."
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