WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sixty-seven percent of Americans believe that now is a good time to find a quality job in the U.S., the highest percentage in 17 years of Gallup polling. Optimism about the availability of good jobs has grown by 25 percentage points since Donald Trump was elected president.
Gallup has asked Americans to say whether it is a good time or bad time to find a quality job monthly since August 2001. Prior to 2017, the percentage saying “good time” never reached 50%, but since Trump took office in January that year, the percentage has stayed at or above 50% and has been higher than 60% in eight of the past nine months.
During the presidency of Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, the percentage of Americans who thought it was a bad time to find a quality job outweighed the percentage who thought it was a good time until the final weeks he was in office. However, Obama took office in the midst of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, when only 13% thought it was a good time to get a quality job, and the percentage almost quadrupled during his eight years in office.
The question was first asked in August 2001, the eighth month of George W. Bush’s presidency, as Americans were losing confidence in the economy following the bursting of the dot-com bubble. At that time, 39% said it was a good time to find a quality job, but the percentage dropped to 25% when it was asked again in October that year, a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Optimism grew slowly over the next five years of Bush’s term, peaking at 48% in January 2007 before a two-year slide that ended with the 13% “good time” response in January 2009.
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https://news.gallup.com/poll/234587/optimism-availability-good-jobs-hits-new-heights.aspx
Photo Credit: Aaron Josefcyuk/UPI
