He inaugural address one year ago, President Joe Biden championed unity, promised a bold governing agenda and prioritized defeating the coronavirus.

Now, as Biden begins his second year as president, majorities of Americans give him low marks for uniting the country, being competent and having the ability to handle a crisis, according to results from a new national NBC News poll.

Furthermore, six out of ten disapprove of Biden’s economic management, and more than half of those who give Biden a thumbs down on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

His overall job rating among adults stands at 43 percent approve and 54 percent disapprove — unchanged in essence from October’s survey. This is the same as October’s survey: 44% of registered voters approve, 54% disapprove.

However, the White House’s situation is not good according to the bipartisan pollsters conducting the NBC News survey.

Biden’s popularity among the Democratic base is declining while only 15% of Americans highly approve of Biden’s job performance. This compares to 43% who disapprove and 5 percent that believe his presidency was better than they expected.

Bill McInturff from Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican pollster said that “this poll would need to be described in bleak. discouraging. and truly terrible.”

Jeff Horwitt from Hart Research Associates added: “One year into Joe Biden’s presidency, Joe Biden’s standing among the American people has diminished and he appears smaller than when he entered to the White House.”

Biden’s inaugural year as President has seen many success stories in the areas of the economy, coronavirus, and parts of his legislative agenda.

We went from 2,000,000 people getting vaccinated when I was sworn into to today’s 210 million Americans having been fully vaccinated. 6,000,000 new jobs have been created. … “The unemployment rate fell to 3.9%.” he said at a news conference Wednesday. “Now, with the bipartisan infrastructure bill we’re going to make a record-breaking investment in America rebuilding.”

But over his first year in office, Biden’s approval rating has dropped by 10 points — from 53 percent in April’s NBC News poll to 43 percent now.

Only Donald Trump, at 39%, is the only exception. This poll has the lowest approval rating ever for a presidential candidate in its first year.

The approval of Biden fell among Independents (from 68% in April to 36% now), Blacks (83% to 64%), those aged 18-34 (56 percent–40 percent), Latinos (59% to 48 percent), and women (61% to 51%)

The economy and the coronavirus

The approval rate of Biden’s coronavirus handling is only 44%, which is 7 percentage points lower than October. This is compared with 53 percent, who said they disagreed with his handling of the pandemic.

Three-quarters of Americans approve of Biden’s economic management, and 60% disapprove.

Only 37% of those surveyed approve of the way he handles Russia’s foreign policy.

A poll revealed that 5 percent believe Biden’s presidency is better than expected. 36 percent said it was worse than expected while 59 per cent thought it was just as expected.

The 5 percent of respondents who believe Biden’s presidency is better than they expected are the lowest number for any president in this poll since Bill Clinton was 1994.

And a plurality of respondents — 42 percent — say Biden is too unwilling to compromise, 23 percent say he’s too willing to compromise, and 27 percent say he has found the right balance.

Grading Biden’s presidential qualities

The NBC News poll also measured Biden’s eight qualities as a presidential candidate.

His best marks came in being knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the job, with 44 percent of respondents giving him either a “4” or a “5” on a 5-point scale — although that’s down from 55 percent who gave him high grades a year ago.

He was not competent or effective (51% of respondents gave him a “1” and “2”), he wasn’t able to manage a crisis (52%), nor did he have a high score on unifying the country (53%).

Kristen Welker from NBC News asked Biden Wednesday if the country was more united today than it ever was before he became president. Biden replied that, “Based on some things we did, I would say yes.”

It is not quite as unifying as it should.

The NBC News poll of 1,000 adults — 650 of whom were contacted by cellphone — was conducted Jan. 14-18 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. We will soon release the remainder of the survey.