CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported Friday that fewer Americans now cite the economy as the nation’s top problem, and that number continues to decline. Enten noted that fewer Americans are naming the economy as the top issue than has historically been the case. “Fewer Americans are saying the top problem is economic compared to last year and historically. And what we’re seeing is fewer Americans are saying that the shutdown is causing a great deal or quite a bit of harm to the economy,” Enten said.

SIDNER: All right, let’s talk about the government shutdown. It’s the second longest in U.S. history. And as it drags on, since we’re talking about the economy leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans without a paycheck, how are Americans feeling right now about the economy? CNN’s Harry Enten is here now to run the numbers. A lot of talk about the economy. HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes. SIDNER: You just heard those numbers, that inflation going up, which is not what anyone wants to see. But you said you found something surprising about how Americans feel about the economy. ENTEN: Yes, quite surprising. I would — honestly, sometimes you look at the numbers and you just go, whoa, it kind of pops off the screen. This is going to be a contrarian take. What are we talking about? Well, you know, Matt was mentioning about the econ playing such an important role in last year’s presidential election. The top problem facing the U.S. is economic per Gallup. Last year, look at this, 43 percent at this time, 43 percent of Americans said the top problem was economic. Come to this side of the screen. It’s just considerably different. We’re talking about 24 percent. We’re talking about a drop of nearly 20 points. And more than that, we’re talking about across all of the different political groups, right, Democrats, independents, Republicans. We see that the percentage who say the top problem is economic has been falling, has been falling, has been falling through the floor. And more than that, you know, we’re talking about inflation. The percentage of Americans who say that the top problem is inflation has also been falling, which is, I think, very surprising given all the news that we are hearing about the economy. SIDNER: It really is surprising. How does this compare to like the historical look at how people feel about the economy? ENTEN: OK. So, you know, let’s talk about — we’ll go through history, right. Let’s take a look. The top problem facing the — facing the United States is economic. And the average midterm election, it’s 35 percent, it’s 35 percent. Look at where we are now. Again, it’s 24 percent. It is lower. Fewer Americans right now are saying the top problem is economic than historically have said that the top problem is economic. So, it’s not only that the top problem being economic is lower than we were at this time last year. It is lower than we have historically been, despite all the news about how the economy is supposedly softening. So, you just look at these numbers, and you just go to yourself, wait a minute, there’s something going on here with the American public whereby you’re getting all this economic news, but yet the percentage of Americans who say the top problem is economic has actually been falling and is lower than it normally is. SIDNER: It’s fascinating. All right, how are people feeling about the shutdown vis a vis whether that’s having an impact on the economy? ENTEN: You know, the story of this segment has essentially been that fewer people are saying that the economy is a top problem than historically were or were a year ago. And so, perhaps not surprisingly, we’ll end on this note. Harm shutdown is having on the economy, a great deal or quite a bit. Back in 2013, the last time we had this measure during a shutdown, it was 65 percent. You come over to this side of the screen. Again, it’s significantly lower. It’s 48 percent. It’s less than a majority. So, what we’re talking about here is, again, fewer Americans are saying the top problem is economic compared to last year and historically. And what we’re seeing is fewer Americans are saying that the shutdown is causing a great deal or quite a bit of harm to the economy. So, at this particular point, yes, it is true that perhaps Americans don’t like the direction that the economy is going. But where it ranks on their list of issues, he’s actually been falling.

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