People's confidence in their financial prospects has plummeted just five months out from the general election, with a new poll showing people are worried they will lose their jobs and that things will get worse in the next year.

The Research New Zealand poll is bad news for the government because despite recent surveys showing high levels of business confidence, it appears many New Zealanders do not feel the same way about their own prospects.

Political scientist Bryce Edwards said the results could mean a return to a focus on the economy in the run-up to the election, and a more traditional emphasis on left-right campaigning.

The poll of 503 people aged 18 and over found that the number of people who felt their financial situation had improved in the past year had dropped to just 14%, down from 27% last year. Just under half said their situation had worsened.

Only 23% of people thought their finances would improve in the next 12 months, down from 56% last year.

Workers were worried about their jobs. Last year 76% of respondents felt confident their jobs were secure – this year that had dropped to 65%, described by the researchers as significant.

"What seemed to be an improving trend in 2009 and 2010 has dropped sharply in 2011," said Research NZ director Emanuel Kalafatelis.

Those who particularly felt their financial situation had become worse were people aged 35 to 54, South Islanders, and workers earning $40,000 or less. People aged 35 to 54 were also most concerned about their job security, along with people in the lower and central North Island.

Kalafatelis said it seemed clear that expectations about financial prospects were much lower now than 12 months ago.

"The expectations about job security of those working in or near the capital, have declined to a much larger extent than elsewhere."

Edwards, a University of Otago politics lecturer, said for most of the National government's term in office, people had tended not to blame National for the poor state of the economy because the country was already heading into a recession when it won.

"But there are signs that such a situation might be evolving – there appears to be a reduction of enthusiasm or trust in the government's management of economic affairs, with the Labour Party's line that `the government does not have a plan' starting to resonate."

Edwards said while there was a significant drop of confidence in National as an economic manager, there seemed to be even less confidence in the ability of the Labour Party, leader Phil Goff and finance spokesman David Cunliffe, to do a better job.

"Despite the severity of the economic slump, the opposition party is struggling at around 32% in opinion polls."

Edwards said the perceptions of low job security meant that vulnerable workers were more likely to put the focus on the industrial relations policies of Labour and National, as well as their social welfare stances.

"This indicates that the upcoming November election could be characterised by a more pronounced left-right ideological nature than we've witnessed for many elections," he said.

The poll was conducted by telephone between May 20 and 27 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.4 %.