Poll: 42 Percent Know Somebody Who Has Given Up Looking For Work
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- While the unemployment rate continues to fall nationally, 42 percent of Americans say the know somebody who has simply given up looking for work, a new poll finds.
A new Rasmussen poll, conducted last week, also found that 69 percent say they know somebody who is looking for work.
That's down four points from March and is the lowest finding measured since September.
From 2010 through early last year, this figure regularly ran in the mid- to high-70s, Rasmussen said.
Illinois' unemployment rate dropped in March to 8.4 percent, its lowest level since January 2009. A year ago, Illinois reported 9.2 percent of its workforce was unemployed.
However, it's the second-worst rate in the country, behind Rhode Island.
The United States added 288,000 new jobs in April as the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%, its lowest level since 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
The unemployment rates for teenagers (19.1%), blacks (11.6%) and Hispanics (7.3%), dropped slightly.
The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted on April 30-May 1.
The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points
