The Obama administration says the country is on the road to economic recovery from what is being called one of the worst recessions in decades. But the majority of Americans are not experiencing a renewed economy just yet. A CBS News poll finds that 57 percent of Americans do not think things are getting better economically, especially in areas where it matters.

Recent data from the U.S. Commerce Department supports an imbalanced economic recovery. On the positive side, the data shows that businesses are increasing their inventory and consumer spending has grown for the seventh month in a row. However, Laura Gurski, a partner at A.T. Kearney Global Management Consultants, cautions that the increase in January sales might be the result of extra money in people’s paychecks from Social Security tax cuts. “Consumers are spending the extra money on the basics,” she said, not on big-ticket items. In January, sales were down at building supply stores, clothing stores, furniture stores and restaurants.

For consumers, an economic recovery won’t be felt until high unemployment numbers come down and the housing market improves. Many industries are asking the same question: “What economic recovery?” The National Association of Homebuilders says the weak economy and the glut of foreclosed homes on the market mean homebuilders can expect another bad year. “People will say they can buy one so much cheaper and we cannot produce a home at that price,” says Dave Nerren, owner of Lexington Homes in Spokane, Washington. He adds more people are spending money on remodeling homes rather than building new.

Other industries, including sports and gaming, are feeling the pinch from the recession and, although they are seeing a slow economic recovery, it needs to be faster and stronger. “You’re not seeing consumers say, ‘Let’s go to Vegas’ like in ‘05, ‘06 and ‘07,” says Bryan Maher, senior lodging, gaming and leisure analyst at Citadel Securities. “You need that for the stocks to do something.” Although casino stocks are relatively weak, Maher predicts some improvement over 2010.

Even NASCAR drivers are expecting a pay cut in upcoming contracts to offset the recession. “The sponsor dollars go down, let’s say, 40 percent or 35 percent. That’s a significant number, so that’s got to come from somewhere. It’s going to be cut back at the team for engineering, personnel, driver salaries, all the way down. We’re going to have to economize what we’re doing to continue on,” says Greg Biffle who drives the No. 16 for Roush Fenway Racing. Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton believes the economy has hit NASCAR much harder than other professional sports. “Every one of our car owners can not exist without major corporate sponsorship. That is the driving factor for our income,” he points out. “If you own a football team, the driving factor for your income is a TV deal, spectators in the seats. For us, it’s sponsorship. Our TV deal is much less, and our impact by losing spectators is much less. So everything revolves around sponsorship, and that has had a huge impact on the number of teams that are in the garage, the number of high-quality teams that are in the garage. We have enough teams, for sure, right now. But certainly, there’s a lot of teams that are in a lot more difficult situation than they were. This sport kind of is behind the flow of economic times. We always get hit later, and we always recover later. So I think we still have a good year, 18 months of tough economic times in the sport.” The U.S. Commerce data seems to concur.

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