"From new NBC poll of 30,196 adults. On list of issues that matter most, foreign policy is last with 2 percent," tweets Byron York.
Such a poll result signals that people want the economy fixed, and that they want it with some law and order on the side.
Polls can be fickle. One result can strongly indicate a certain sentiment, but it can fall outside the mainstream of popular desire. Some surveys measure the leanings of the people almost dead-on accurately. It depends. In this case, more than 30,000 respondents means this poll takes into account a lot of offered opinions. It also, based on the chart of three prior polls, has not wavered much in overall results with respect to the nine issues listed. "Crime and safety" has ticked up, while "The economy has ticked down a bit.
The economy continues to justify its being considered a top concern. Unemployment has increased to 4.3 percent, as recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the month of August 2025. That is an increase from recordings of 4.2 percent in July and 4.1 percent in June. Unemployment has not dipped below 4 percent since April of 2024. The Consumer Price Index, a measure by the BLS of price increases over an annual period, was 2.7 percent in July of 2025 from July of 2024. That regularly published statistic has not dipped below 2 percent in more than four years, much of which time it has been far higher. 2 percent is important because the Federal Reserve, which has "stable prices" as part of its dual mandate, maintains that figure as its "longer-run" inflation objective. It can begin to accumulate. Persistent inflation combined with an unemployment rate that just will not drop to more comfortable levels begins to amount to a situation that has reasonable cause for concern or uneasiness, at the very least.
Put another way, the reservoir of economic balls of positive sunshine that so-called "bullish" economists might offer seems to be more difficult to find of late. That is not to suggest that there is no positive economic activity going on. There, no doubt, are some encouraging signs on the horizon. But the data points do not give off the warm fuzzies. There exists a sense that things are just not all the way right or perhaps even uncomfortable economically.