More than eight in 10 Americans think the U.S. economy is in another recession, and a majority urge President Barack Obama to focus more on creating jobs, a new CNN poll showed Friday.

The results come as the American unemployment rate remained high at 9.1 percent in August, and no net jobs were added across the country, the Labor Department reported Friday.

While the country is not technically in a recession, which is defined as two straight quarters of negative growth, the economic recovery is too sluggish to make a difference.

The U.S. economy grew only 1 percent in the second quarter following an even anemic growth of 0.4 percent in the first, according to the Commerce Department.

The poor economy has hurt Obama as shown in his recent job approval ratings. While his overall approval remained near the lowest level of his presidency at about 40 percent, Obama was rated even lower on economic issues, with only 34 percent of Americans approving of the way he is handling the economy, according to another CNN poll released earlier this week.

The results highlighted the importance of the president's jobs speech next Thursday night, when he is expected to lay out an economic plan to shore up job creation and economic growth during a joint session of Congress.

The new survey showed that about two-thirds of all Americans think the president should focus more on creating jobs right now, even if it means less deficit reduction.

That thinking, however, was divided along party lines. Almost half of Republicans surveyed say deficit reduction is just as important as creating more jobs, while 83 percent of Democrats want the president to focus more on job growth. Two-thirds of independents say the same.

Related

• Poll: one in four chance of U.S. recession
• Official panel: U.S. economy in recession since December, 2007

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