This week’s Essential Report reveals that economic gloom appears to be settling in among voters.

The proportion of voters who think the economy is heading in the right direction has fallen significantly since the budget, and for the first time since the GFC, more people think it is headed in the wrong direction (43%) than the right direction (37%), although there is a level of partisanship about the results: 66% of Labor voters think the economy is travelling in the right direction, while 65% think it’s going in the wrong direction. And for the first time since June last year, more people think their own personal financial situation will worsen — 36% — than will improve — 28% — over the next 12 months. On that question, partisanship is less clearly defined but still present — Labor voters are much more optimistic (34% “better” to 27% “worse”) than Liberal voters (25% to 45%) while Greens voters are far more optimistic than either — 41% expect their own circumstances to get better and 22% expect them to worsen.

Concerns about job security are also up, though much less than other economic indicators: 45% of people are concerned they or a family member may lose their job, up from 43% in April. Liberal voters were again more pessimistic — 50% were concerned, compared to 45% of Labor voters and 37% of Greens voters.

Labor still badly trails the Liberals on perceptions of economic management, with 43% of voters believing the Liberals were better at handling the economy in their interests than Labor (26%). The Liberals were also rated as better than Labor at balancing the interests of big business and voters — 30% to 23% — but were also considered much more likely to be concerned more about the interests of big business — 41% — than voters — 13%. Labor scored 33-22% on the same question.

The level of support for gay marriage has also risen, with support back up to 54% from March, when it had fallen to 49%, and opposition down to 35%. Green voters were most strongly in favour — 85% — but support was also strong among Labor voters, at 65%. Only Liberal voters were more likely to oppose than support, 48% to 41%.

On voting intention, another one-point rise for the Liberals has taken them further ahead of Labor. The Coalition primary vote is now 49% to Labor’s 32%. With the Greens still on 11%, the Coalition’s 2PP lead is now 56-44%, its biggest ever in Essential’s polling.