The survey of 1203 adults found that just 16% thought the economy would be better with 52% saying it will be much the same.

Among workers, fear for their job security is growing – only 13% said their job was more safe than a year ago, 45% thought it was the same and 29% of those in work thought their job was less safe. Younger workers felt particularly vulnerable with 37% of 18- 24-year-olds saying they feel their job is less safe.

Luke Taylor, head of social and political attitudes at Kantar Public UK said: "The most striking figure in this latest dataset is that a third of people ( 33%) believe the UK economy will be doing worse in 12 months time – we've not recorded this level of pessimism in the economy since January 2012. It will be interesting to see if optimism returns in coming months or if this deteriorates further."