By Aaron Zitner 

WASHINGTON -- A strong economy and a polarizing president have left Americans with mixed feelings about the nation's course. A majority say 2018 was a good, or at least average, year for the country, but also that the U.S. is on the wrong track.

According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, one-third of Americans say the economy will get worse in 2019, the highest level of wariness in five years, the poll found.

The poll found views of the country's direction and economy are sharply split by political party, with Republicans satisfied and Democrats and independents dissatisfied.

For example, 48% of Republicans predict economic improvement in the coming year and 12% see a downturn, while those proportions are reversed among Democrats. The poll was conducted Dec. 9-12, a period of stock market turbulence. Unemployment remains at a 49-year low, and the pace of wage growth has picked up.

Overall, 28% of Americans in the survey said they believe the economy will get better in the next year, while 33% said it would get worse. That was the first time the larger share of respondents predicted a worsening economy since October 2013, when political squabbling led to a partial government shutdown.

The poll results reflect a nation looking for more clarity about the course of the economy and in politics, said Micah Roberts, a Republican pollster who worked on the survey with Democrat Fred Yang.

"People can look back and say, 'That was a good year, economically,' and can look forward and say, 'I'm not sure about the next 12 months,' " Mr. Roberts said. The result of midterm elections, in which Republicans lost their House majority but strengthened their power in the Senate, "doesn't provide clarity," Mr. Roberts said. "The economic policies of [President] Trump haven't gotten a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence, because we've had a split decision."

Peter Hart, a Democrat who also worked on the survey, read the results as a rebuke to Mr. Trump, given that 56% of respondents said the nation was on the wrong track despite a strong economy. "In spite of a tremendous tailwind, people are unsatisfied and unhappy," he said.

The survey found partisan differences not only as Americans looked toward 2019 but also as they looked at events of the past year.

Presented a list of eight major events in 2018, Republicans said the strong economy was most important to them personally, followed by trade and tariff negotiations with U.S. trading partners. Democrats said the most important events were mass shootings, such as those at a Florida high school in February and a Pittsburgh synagogue in October, as well as the separation of families and the arrival of immigrants seeking asylum at the southern border.

Nearly half of Republicans said voters weren't sending any message about Mr. Trump's policies through their choices in the midterm elections, in which the party lost a net 40 House seats, according to current tallies, while gaining two in the Senate.

By contrast, 56% of Democrats said voters had in fact sent Mr. Trump a message to change his policies and programs, but that he hadn't heard it. An additional 27% of Democrats said Mr. Trump had received the message but wasn't changing course.

The poll offered some cautions for Mr. Trump as Democrats prepare to take control of the House.

Some 55% in the survey said they welcomed Democrats using their new House majority to provide more oversight of Mr. Trump and his administration, with 43% opposing new investigations.

Nearly half of respondents said they wanted Democrats in Congress to take the lead in setting policy for the country, the highest share during Mr. Trump's time in office. By contrast, about one respondent in five preferred Mr. Trump to take the lead on policy, and about the same share favored GOP lawmakers.

The survey also found increased challenges for Mr. Trump in his response to the special-counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters.

Some 62% of Americans disagreed with the idea that Mr. Trump has been honest and truthful in the investigation, compared with 56% in an August survey of registered voters. Some 45% said special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation should continue, compared with 34% who said it should end.

By large majorities, Republicans viewed Mr. Trump as truthful and said the investigation should end, while large majorities of Democrats and large shares of independents said the opposite.

Overall, 43% approved of Mr. Trump's job performance, including 85% of Republicans. By contrast, 54% of Americans disapproved of the president's performance.

The Journal/NBC News poll included 900 adults. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.27 percentage points.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 16, 2018 09:14 ET (14:14 GMT)