Americans Are Still Gloomy About the U.S. Job Market

Americans remain just as pessimistic about the country's job market as they have been all year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 43% of Adults believe that anyone who wants to work in America can find a job, but just as many (44%) disagree. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure. That's consistent with findings since January. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

But 48% think it’s still possible for anyone in the country to work their way out of poverty, a finding that's down slightly from 2009 and also has remained largely unchanged since the beginning of this year. Thirty-five percent (35%) feel otherwise and don’t think it's possible for just anyone to work their way out of being poor. Seventeen percent (17%) are undecided.

To take it a step further, only 30% of Adults say it’s still possible for anyone in the United State to work hard and get rich.  Fifty-five percent (55%) don’t think that's true, while 15% are not sure.  These findings show little change from January 2009.

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The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on December 2-3, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.