A solid majority of the American public supports both issuing a second round of stimulus checks (80%) and extending the extra $600 weekly federal unemployment benefits (68%) currently set to expire on Saturday. In the latest Fortune|SurveyMonkey poll, conducted July 17-21, majorities of Republicans (67%), Democrats (92%), and independents (86%) all support a second round of stimulus checks, while 86% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and 48% of Republicans also support the unemployment benefit extension.
Coronavirus concerns linger
67% of people say they always wear a mask when out in public, up from 54% in May. 19% say they usually, 8% rarely, and 5% never wear masks in public, all down from their May numbers. Democrats are the most habitual mask-wearers—85% now say they always wear one in public—but Republicans and independents are also more likely to wear a mask now than they were a month ago.
A clear majority of people (62% v. 36%) are more concerned that businesses in their area will reopen too quickly rather than too slowly—exactly the same split that we saw in surveys conducted in both May and April. Just 5% of people now say they expect life to be back to normal in one month or less. That’s down from 18% in April and 12% in May.
Jobs update
About half (46%) of workers say they’ve been able to work remotely as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Among those who can, nearly half (47%) say they’ve felt equally as productive working from home since the start of the pandemic as before. The rest are nearly split between those who feel less productive (29%) and more productive (24%).
Looking ahead to this fall, 43% of workers say they would choose a mix of working from home and working from their usual workplace if the decision were up to them. About as many (41%) would choose to exclusively work from home. Just 16% would choose to work solely from their usual workplace.
For full results, click through the interactive toplines below.
Read more about our polling methodology here.
