While world financial markets hang on her every word, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen isn’t making much of an impression yet on ordinary Americans.
Just 24 percent of respondents correctly identified Janet Yellen as the chair of the U.S. central bank in a survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington. Seventeen percent believed Alan Greenspan, who resigned in 2006, still holds the job.
Yellen, 68, the world’s most most powerful central banker, was sworn in as Fed chair in Washington Feb. 3, becoming the first female leader in the bank’s 100-year history.
The survey posed 12 separate questions on topics ranging from where does Islamic State hold territory to what is driving the economic boom in North Dakota.
The question on the federal minimum wage got the most correct answers, with 73 percent saying it was $7.25 an hour. A third of respondents accurately pegged the U.S. unemployment rate at close to 6 percent. Only a fifth knew that 15 percent of Americans live below the federal poverty line.
The average respondent answered 5 out of 12 questions correctly.
The Pew survey polled 1,002 adults Sept. 25-28. All questions were multiple choice.
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