HARRISBURG -- Seven of 10 Pennsylvanians don't expect their personal finances to improve in 2009, and more than half say they'll spend less money on holiday gifts, according to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University.
The poll of 1,487 Pennsylvania residents found that 54 percent consider themselves worse off financially, while 23 percent say they are better off and 22 percent say they are the same.
Conducted from Nov. 19-24, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
"There is a lot of financial pain in Pennsylvania today," said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac's polling institute. "More than half the people say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago, and seven out of 10 don't expect things to get better in the next year."
The poll found that three-fourths of people with private retirement plans say they've lost money. Richards noted that one-third of those with retirement savings plans plan to delay their retirements.
More bad news for retailers, Richards said, came from the answers to a question about holiday gift purchases: "This year, are you going to spend more on holiday gifts, less or about the same?" Only 3 percent said they would spend more; 53 percent said they plan to spend less, and 43 percent said about the same. Two percent didn't know.
The poll found that 62 percent of Pennsylvanians expect the national economy to improve in President-elect Barack Obama's first term.
By a 42-38 percent margin, Pennsylvanians approved of how Gov. Ed Rendell is handling the state's economy. State government faces up to a $2 billion deficit next year. Twenty percent were unsure about Rendell's fiscal management.
But in Southwest Pennsylvania, 51 percent disapproved of Rendell's handling of the economy. That region includes Beaver, Westmoreland, Washington, Indiana, Cambria, Greene, Fayette and Somerset counties.
In Allegheny County, those polled were more optimistic than the rest of the state about their personal finances. Only 4 percent listed their personal finances as "poor," compared to 15 percent statewide.
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