32% Say Government Should Do Nothing for the Long-Term Unemployed

Americans continue to have mixed feelings about how the government should respond to the long-term unemployed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults finds that 32% feel the government should do nothing at all, while 25% think it should pay for their retraining. Ten percent (10%) say the government should extend unemployment benefits indefinitely, and 21% think the government should hire those long out of work, down from June's high-to-date of 24%. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 
Most of these findings have remained relatively stable since October of last year, although support for indefinite unemployment benefits has fallen since that time.

 Thirty-six percent (36%) of Americans think it would be good for the U.S. economy if the government hires more people, showing no change from June’s all-time high. However, a plurality (44%) says this action would be bad for the economy, while 11% believe it would have no impact.

Since last October, generally speaking, the number of adults who see more government hiring as good for the economy has generally fallen in the mid-30s, while those who see it as a bad move have hovered in the low 40s.

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on October 1-2, 2011 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.