These are the topline results of a YouGov/Economist survey of 1000 US adults interviewed December 7-9, 2013 on unemployment. The results show that Americans are split on the future of unemployment in the US, but think that Congress and the President could be doing more. The margin of error is 4.5%.
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Please give us your best guess to the following question. How has the unemployment rate in the country changed from January 2009, when President Obama first took office, to November 2013?
Unemployment rate decreased by 1% or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27%
Unemployment rate decreased by between 0% and 1% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13%
Unemployment rate is the same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
Unemployment rate increased by between 0% and 1% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
Unemployment rate increased by 1% or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28%
Don’t know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Do you think President Barack Obama is doing enough to create new jobs for Americans or should he do more?
Doing enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26%
Should do more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14%
Do you think Republicans in Congress are doing enough to create new jobs for Americans or should they do more?
Doing enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13%
Should do more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19%
Do you think Democrats in Congress are doing enough to create new jobs for Americans or should they do more?
Doing enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18%
Should do more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16%
Should the federal government encourage employment through various incentives, laws and regulations or should the federal government not be directly involved?
Federal government should encourage employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45%
Federal government should not be directly involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18%
Looking ahead, which would you say is more likely, that in the country as a whole unemployment rates during THE NEXT YEAR will increase, decrease or remain about the same?
Unemployment rates will be a lot lower than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat lower than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26%
Unemployment rates will be about the same as they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat higher than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16%
Unemployment rates will be a lot higher than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15%
Looking ahead, which would you say is more likely, that in the country as a whole unemployment rates during THE NEXT FIVE YEARS will increase, decrease or remain about the same?
Unemployment rates will be a lot lower than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat lower than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28%
Unemployment rates will be about the same as they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18%
Unemployment rates will be somewhat higher than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Unemployment rates will be a lot higher than they are today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19%
Looking ahead, which would you say is more likely, that in the country as a whole we’ll have continuous good times during the next year or so, or that we will have periods of widespread unemployment or depression, or what?
Good times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2%
Mostly good times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13%
Mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48%
Mostly bad times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15%
Bad times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12%
Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9%
