“Things have been really bad but it’s reached another level now - people have lost hope,’’ said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center, which conducted the poll. “The American dream of owning a home and owning stocks are the pillars that have held up hope throughout our history. This is signaling to us that those pillars are shaking.’’
The poll of 400 Massachusetts residents was conducted early last week, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Remarkably, optimism was easier to find in the same poll taken two years ago, when the nation was still reeling from the worst economic slowdown since the Great Depression. Most believed then that the recession would end in late 2009.
Two years later, three-fourths of those surveyed said the recession in Massachusetts has yet to end and half said they expected it to last at least two more years.
The recession technically ended in June 2009, and since then, unemployment has ticked downward both nationally and in Massachusetts. (The state’s unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in October and the US rate fell to 8.6 percent for November.) In the last year, hiring, manufacturing and consumer confidence have all shown modest improvements.
Yet among those polled, gloom prevails, a sign that many have not shared in these gains or don’t believe they will last. One in five respondents said someone in their household had lost a job within the last 18 months, and of those who did, 36 percent said the person had been unemployed for a year or more.
Jeffrey Bolger, a Halifax resident, said too many manufacturing companies have moved their operations outside the United States, eliminating good jobs, leaving a new generation of workers in positions that pay less or offer few benefits. He said his adult son, for example, has a college degree and a job, but remains on Bolger’s health insurance plan.
