Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s job rating took a major hit in the aftermath of the post-Christmas blizzard, but he is starting to recover, according to a new poll released Thursday night.

In the latest NY1/YNN-Marist Poll, 44 percent of New York City voters rated Mr. Bloomberg’s job performance as either excellent or good, up from 37 percent early last month. Still, he remains below 50 percent, the rating he received in a Marist Poll conducted last October, and far short of his high of 68 percent received in October 2008.

Mr. Bloomberg is doing an excellent job , according to 10 percent of the voters surveyed in the most recent poll; 34 percent said he is doing a good job. His job performance was rated fair by 29 percent, and 26 percent described it as poor.

Seven in 10 voters disapproved of how Mr. Bloomberg handled the snow removal after the December storm, according to the Marist poll conducted in early January.

The latest poll release did not include any questions about the handling of snow in subsequent storms. So it is unclear whether Mr. Bloomberg’s improved job rating has anything to do with snow removal after more recent storms.

Most voters have a positive view of the overall direction of the city. For the first time in more than a year, a majority — 52 percent — said things in New York City are going in the right direction, up from 38 percent in early January. Forty-four percent said the city was heading in the wrong direction.

The NY1/YNN-Marist Poll telephone survey was conducted Jan. 24-31 with 508 registered voters using a random sample of landlines and cellphones throughout New York City. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. YNN is the designation for the Time Warner 24-hour cable news channels outside New York City.

(Source: NY Times)