THREE TIMES as many Jamaicans believe things in the country are going in the wrong direction compared to those who think things are going right, according to a recent Gleaner-commissioned poll.

In an islandwide survey of 1008 residents by pollster Bill Johnson on May 5 and 6, 62 per cent of registered voters said things in Jamaica were going in the wrong direction, while 21 per cent said things were going right. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.

In addition, 52 per cent of respondents told the polling team that things were going wrong in the areas in which they lived, as opposed to 38 per cent who said things were going in the wrong direction at the community level. The most pressing issues or needs at the local level were identified in the May survey as jobs (69 per cent), crime/violence (68 per cent)), road conditions (16 per cent), and water problems (13 per cent).

Although 62 per cent of electors still hold a negative view about the direction of the country, their number has declined by 14 percentage points since January (76 per cent) when Johnson had asked this question, and by 12 points since the October 2006 survey. There also has been, on the opposite side, a nine-point increase to 21 per cent as at May, compared to January (12 per cent) in the number of respondents who believe things are going in a positive direction in the country. The number of persons who held this view in October 2006 was 14 per cent.

Despite the large majority of respondents who think things are going wrong in the country, a large plurality - 41 per cent - believe that government was doing a good job compared to 31 per cent who rated the administration's performance as bad.

"Jamaicans are fatalistic, hence their general negative outlook," explained pollster Johnson. "But they rate the Government (moderately) on its performance."