MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll shows that Minnesotans are worried about the economy and seven in 10 respondents think the government needs to do more to fix it.
According to the poll, 63 percent of respondents think federal officials should take steps to keep people in their homes in the face of foreclosure.
More than 40 percent indicated they are very or somewhat concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, and about a third are concerned about losing their jobs or taking a pay cut.
The telephone survey of 1,201 Minnesota adults, conducted Wednesday through Friday, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
Terri Jasper, a teacher in Nisswa, said she feels the economy is going in the wrong direction.
‘‘There’s health care, education (expenses). I’m very concerned about that,’’ said Jasper, 60. ‘‘I’m coming up on retirement and I’ve lost so much money (in retirement accounts) that there’s no way.’’
With a few exceptions, Minnesotans are worried about their retirement savings — 63 percent of respondents voiced concern about not having enough money at retirement.
‘‘I don’t find this particularly surprising,’’ said John Boyd, a finance professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, told the Star Tribune. ‘‘Who’s not worried about the economy now?’’
As a sign of the worry, some Minnesotans are changing behaviors. Forty-five percent said they cut back or canceled vacations.
And two-thirds said rising costs of fuel and food led to spending cuts ‘‘in other areas.’’ Roughly the same number said the same when the question was asked in a Minnesota Poll in mid-May.
Laura Nyberg, a poll respondent from Bloomington, said she ‘‘consolidates’’ shopping trips to hit her grocery store, drug store and shopping center all at once. ‘‘I’ve filled up just two tanks of gas this year,’’ said Nyberg, who runs a packaging and crating company with her husband.
Another poll respondent, Richard Arvig, of Forest Lake, said he and his wife watch their pennies, especially since he’s been out of work after heart surgery. ‘‘Our overall cost of living has gone up so much with fuel prices and food prices,’’ Arvig said. ‘‘We don’t go out as much as we used to.’’
In the current poll, 42 percent of the female respondents said that they are worse off than a year ago, compared with 32 percent of men who took the poll. And 39 percent of the women said they were worried about job losses, compared with 31 percent of the men.