Voters say economy is number one concern as people struggle despite shrinking inflation
NEWTON - While new job reports show unemployment claims have decreased for the third straight week, voters in Massachusetts said their big concern is the economy and being able to afford things like groceries, which seem to keep getting more expensive.
Economy as top issue
Eighty-four percent of voters said the economy is their top issue this election, according to a CBS News poll.
"When I go to the grocery store and I get a head of lettuce, it used to be 99 cents. It's $1.99 now and it's a bargain," explained Harold, a Newton voter who chose to vote for neither major party presidential candidate. The economy is "the number one issue," he added.
The pinch of inflation is most often cited at the grocery store and gas stations. At the Hebron Food Pantry in Attleboro, President Heather Porreca had to make the difficult decision to pause new registrations to keep up with demand. Their clientele has more than doubled in the last year.
"Food inflation is really the number one [issue] as well as inflation across the board," Porreca explained. "It's either let's keep the lights on, or medication or gas in the car to make sure that Mom and Dad can get to work. It's just a really tough balance for families out there right now. People are going through it. It's just really hard."
However, one expert interviewed by WBZ-TV sees the disconnect between our perception of prices and the actual status of the economy as puzzling.
Actual economy status?
Economic measures show that inflation has actually shrank from around 8% down to roughly 2.5%, according to Suffolk University Economics Professor Jonathan Haughton. The economy is "actually doing pretty well, better than people had anticipated six or 12 months ago," he said. "Because there was a fear that as the fed tried to squeeze down inflation that we would have maybe a hard landing meaning a recession and that actually hasn't happened."
"Businesses are still hiring fairly vigorously, the GDP is rising, consumer spending is rising, and inflation has come down. So, many people think we have actually made the soft landing that was hoped for," he said.
Still, consumer sentiment about the economy tends to reflect daily prices and lag behind the actual status of economic changes. "What we see, it gives us a recency bias. It loads into our sentiment more than it ought to," Houghton said.
When casting your ballot, Houghton said to consider each of the economic plans set out by Vice President Harris and former President Trump and how those plans will impact your wallet. "If the economy is weighing on your voting decision. you shouldn't really be looking at what's happened in the past, or even where we are now, but what do you anticipate in the future," he said. "And pretty much any expert you talk to is going to tell you that the Trump proposals to put tariffs on a lot of imports would have a bigger effect raising inflation than anything that Harris is suggesting."
