Obama approval rating jumps: Poll

Obama has gained support this month to reclaim approval rating above 50 per cent threshold since 2009.

A new poll on Thursday found that US President Barack Obama has seen a surge of support this month to reclaim an approval rating above the symbolic 50 per cent threshold for the first time since 2009, said a report in Agence France Presse.

On the two-year anniversary of Obama's historic inauguration, a growing number of Americans see the US economy improving in coming years, but also voiced mounting concern about the high unemployment rate, now at 9.4 per cent, according to Thursday's Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

A series of accomplishments have boosted Obama's numbers. In mid-December he signed a legislation extending Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels, and extending jobless benefits, and on December 22 he signed a law repealing a ban on gays serving openly in the military, as well as the arms-reduction treaty with Russia.

The poll said 74 per cent of Americans approve of how he handled the situation regarding the economic and unemployment crisis.

While a majority of respondents said they still feared the economy was on the wrong track, 35 per cent said it was headed in the right direction, a jump from 28 per cent in December, according to the survey.

Optimism about the economy stood at 18 month highs, said the report. Fifty six per cent saw a better economic outlook in the next five years, while 21 per cent said it will be worse.

The poll of 1,000 adults was taken January 13 to 17, and has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent.