Blacks And Poor Americans List Unemployment As Larger Problem Than General Economy: Gallup

To a large number of Americans, an economic recovery without jobs is not really a recovery at all.

Overall, 55 percent of Americans picked either the general economy (29 percent) or joblessness (26 percent) as the country's most important problem, according to a Gallup poll released Friday, making this the fifth straight month of the year that Americans put the economy and unemployment atop their list.

The next most popular answer was the federal deficit, at 13 percent.

But now, there are a number of demographic groups that are identifying unemployment as an even bigger concern than the broader economy. Indeed, unemployment, not the general economy, was the top issue of concern for blacks, senior citizens, and people who earned $30,000 or less per year, according to the Gallup poll.

Meanwhile, men, white respondents, adults under age 65, and individuals earning at least $30,000 per year were all more likely to say that the broader economy is, right now, more important than jobs.

And while there was notable distance in the amount of concern expressed over budget deficits and the quality of health care, there was one area of broad consensus: people are dissatisfied with the government. That dissatisfaction ranked among the top concerns for nearly every group, particularly with respondents over 50 years old.

The Gallup results come just a week after a tepid jobs report indicated that just over 54,000 private-sector jobs were created in May. Overall unemployment rose to 9.1 percent from 9 percent.

It's not just weak job growth that has given indication of a weak recovery, either. The housing market has double dipped and a slew of unforeseen international disasters have U.S. production in sectors such as the auto industry.

The Gallup poll's findings are the results of surveys conducted between January and May. For the surveys, 5,149 adults around the country were contacted by cell phone and landline.