The president and his administration are still focused on health care, but have added in a renewed dialogue on jobs to help show they understand the continuing trouble people are having on economic issues. But it seems this isn’t resonating with the public. Since January, President Obama’s low job rating on the economy has held steady. Just under one-third of Americans (32%) give him positive ratings on the job he is doing on the economy while 68% give him negative ratings. In January, 31% gave him positive marks and 69% gave him negative ones.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,320 adults surveyed online between March 1 and 8, 2010 by Harris Interactive.

Also unchanged since January are the public’s economic expectations. One in five Americans (21%) believe their household’s financial situation will be better in the next six months while almost half (47%) believe it will remain the same and 32% say it will be worse. In January 21% also believed their household’s financial condition would be better in 6 months, 49% thought it would remain the same and 30% said it would get worse.

There are some regional differences on these expectations. Southerners are the most divided as 22% believe it will be better in six months while 36% say their household’s financial condition will be worse in six months. Easterners think it will be status quo as over half (53%) say their household’s financial condition will remain the same six months from now.

Looking at the broader picture of the economy, only just over one in ten Americans (12%) believe the economy has already started growing while another 11% say it will start growing within the next six months. One in five (19%) believe the economy will start growing between 6 and 12 months from now. A plurality of more than two in five (43%) believe it won’t start growing for another year or longer.

Jobs, jobs and jobs

Looking at the issue of jobs, there is a slight downward dip in attitudes on the current job market. Less than one in ten Americans (8%) believe the current job market of their region of the nation is good while 73% believe it is bad and 18% say it is neither good nor bad. In January, 10% believed the job market in their region of the country was good and 70% believed it was bad.

Looking at the different regions of the country, the South seems to be the “best” place for jobs right now as 12% of Southerners say the job market in their region is good while 70% believe it is bad. The Midwest and West are the worst as only 6% of Midwesterners and Westerners say their job market is good and over three-quarters of both (77% and 78% respectively) say it is bad.

People believe it will be a while before the job market improves. Less than one in ten Americans (7%) say the job market has already started to improve and 13% say it will improve within the next six months. One in five U.S. adults (21%) say it will improve between 6 and 12 months from now but many more people, 41%, say it will not improve for another year or more.

So what?

The economists tell us that the economy is growing but very few people believe that, or are likely to believe it, until unemployment falls significantly. And, until that happens, the president’s ratings on the economy are likely to remain low and to pull down his overall job ratings. All of which points to substantial gains for the Republicans in the November election.