In June, the unemployment rate in North Dakota was 2.9%. Many economists believe that unemployment is 5% in a normal economy. North Dakota apparently has more jobs than people to fill them. Unemployment in Nebraska was 3.8% in June. The states in which people report the most positive impressions of job prospects have similarly low unemployment rates.
The comparison works when the Gallup numbers are measured against state with high unemployment. At the bottom of the polling firm’s survey is Oregon, where unemployment is 8.5%, New York, where it is 8.9%, and New Jersey, where the figure is 9.6%.
This kind of research does not have much value. It tells people what they already know. People with jobs like the prospects of those around them more than people who are unemployed do.
Methodology: Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking January 2 to June 30, 2012, with a random sample of 100,406 working adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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