LANSING – Overall approval of President Barack Obama’s job performance has increased to its highest level since 2009 among Michigan residents, according to the latest State of the State Survey.

The survey also found that approval ratings for Governor Rick Snyder declined slightly, but were statistically unchanged from results in the last survey. His approval ratings have declined slightly for two consecutive surveys.

The survey found that more respondents thought their current financial situation was good, but considerably fewer thought they were better off now than a year before compared to the previous survey.

The survey, conducted quarterly since 1994, was done of 1,013 Michigan adults, and conducted of both land-line and cellphone users. The survey was conducted from January 14 to March 4.

Results released last week showed the state almost exactly evenly split on whether respondents thought the recently effective right-to-work laws would help or hurt Michigan’s economy.

The results released Wednesday showed that 48.4 percent of those asked thought Obama was doing a good or excellent job.

That compared to 42.8 percent who gave the president high marks in the fall of 2012.

Charles Ballard, economics professor at Michigan State University and director of SOSS, attributed the increase in part to Obama’s successful re-election campaign last year. He won the state with 54.3 percent of the vote.

Of the respondents, 31.2 percent thought Obama was doing a good job, while 17.2 percent thought he was doing an excellent job. Obama got higher favorable ratings from southeast Michigan with 54.1 percent giving him high marks compared to 41.4 percent in the Grand Rapids area, and, as might be expected, from Democrats, with 85.5 percent giving him good or excellent ratings.

His top ratings at 70.7 percent came after he was first inaugurated in 2009, and he finished that year at 44.2 percent. His lowest approval rating was 32.2 percent in the fall of 2010 during the height of the tea party movement.

The percentage of respondents giving Snyder good or excellent ratings stood at 34 percent – with 27.4 percent giving him good ratings and 6.6 percent excellent – down slightly, but statistically insignificant from the 35.5 percent who gave him the best ratings in the fall of 2012. In the summer of 2012, he got the best ratings from 36.8 percent of those questioned.

Snyder’s ratings have generally been in the mid-30 percent range during his administration.

He did best in western Michigan, with 43.1 percent in Grand Rapids approving of him compared to 33.3 percent in Southeast Michigan, and 56.9 percent of Republicans gave him the best ratings.

In terms of their personal economics, 52.6 percent of those asked said their financial situation is good or excellent. While better than the 47.8 percent who so responded in the fall of 2012, it is down from the 54.4 percent who said that in the summer of 2012.

It is far better than the 43.4 percent who said so in 2008, during the recession, but also far below the 64.1 percent who felt that way in 1998, during the state’s biggest economic expansion.

However, just 34.9 percent said they were better off than a year before and 37.5 percent said they were worse off. Those percentages were flipped in autumn 2012 with 41.7 percent saying they were better off and 32.6 percent saying they were worse off.

Ballard attributed the change to the somewhat tepid job growth Michigan saw in 2012.

And 55.2 percent thought the state would be better off in a year, while 61 percent thought so last fall, and 28.7 percent thought Michigan would be worse off in a year, compared to 19.3 percent in the fall.

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