If someone asked you, would you say the level of unemployment in America is lower today that it was in 2009 during the Great Recession?
You probably would, but a majority of Republicans wouldn't.
Phillip Bump at WaPo speculates:
So what's going on, horse race experts? One theory is that Donald Trump is in the lead despite his rather loosey-goosey policy proposals (proposals that have driven the Post's fact-checkers to near-exhaustion) because he embraces the rhetoric of the Republican base. Trump says unemployment is way higher than what the administration says and people are like, "Yeah, that makes sense," and here we are.
I would add that it's not just Donald Trump and several of the other GOP candidates. Fox News and other right wing media outlets have been promoting the idea for years that the Labor Department has been cooking the books.
It's called a 'bubble' for a reason. There's no factual basis for it but this is what Republican voters have been told by sources they trust.
I have no explanation for the 18 percent of Democrats who believe unemployment is higher, but if I had to guess I'd say they probably support Bernie Sanders.