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BUSINESS

39% Say Government Should Do Nothing For Long-Term Unemployed

More Americans than ever (39%) now think that if people can’t find work for an extended period of time, the government should do nothing at all to help them, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Only eight percent (8%) feel their unemployment benefits should be extended indefinitely, down four points from October and tying the all-time low finding in over two years of regular surveying.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Thirty-two percent (32%) of Adults believe the government should pay for their retraining, tying April’s high.  Just 12% think the government should hire the long-term unemployed.

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on December 1-2, 2012 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.

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