Fox News Poll: 53% Disapprove of Obama’s Handling of the Economy

More Americans disapprove (53 percent) than approve (42 percent) of the way President Obama is handling the economy, a new Fox News poll finds.

Voters are particularly unhappy with how the president is handling the federal deficit:  31 percent approve and 62 percent disapprove.

Click here for full poll results.

The president rates somewhat higher on job creation, though his numbers here are still negative:  40 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove.

His highest approval ratings are on his handling of terrorism (50 percent) and Afghanistan (49 percent).

The national telephone poll was conducted for Fox News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from April 6 to April 7.  For the total sample, the poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The new poll also finds that almost equal numbers of voters think things in the country would be better today (28 percent) as think they would be worse (27 percent) if Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin had won the 2008 presidential election.  The largest number though -- 41 percent -- thinks things would be the same as they are today.

Almost all American voters consider the following situations a crisis:  unemployment (86 percent), the size of the federal deficit (82 percent), and economic conditions in general (81 percent).

Half -- 50 percent -- consider the country’s current energy situation a crisis, while 42 percent say it isn’t.

Among the poll’s other findings:

-- Slightly more people think unemployment will be lower (by a 6 percentage point margin), and there will be fewer home foreclosures (by 5 points) a year from now.

-- On a less positive note, by 46-29 percent, more people think the average salary of working Americans will be lower rather than higher this time next year.