It looks as though the 2012 presidential election will come down to which candidate has the best jobs creation plan and which can convince the country that they will actively work towards achieving and fulfilling that plan.
With the economic downturn and a very rough job market, it’s not surprising to see how important American’s think a jobs creation plan is for the next presidential term. In fact, 49 percent of American’s who took part in a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International said that their vote in the 2012 presidential election will be influenced most by the issue of jobs creation. With a current unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure a healthy job market in the future and the people of this country are full aware of it.
Perhaps more surprising was the percentage of American’s that believe in President Obama and his jobs plan. According to the survey, 36 percent of Americans believe that Obama has the best jobs creation plan of all the candidates. To add to his favor, only 14 percent of Americans believe that Obama is to blame for the current ill state of the job market. These are all great things for Obama and if he can keep the people’s opinion in his favor, he may be able to see some of his job creation plans come to life in the next years.
Aside from favoring Obama’s jobs plan, 64 percent of Americans that participated in the survey believe that the government should be offering job seekers additional skills training or education. 66 percent believe that the government should specifically be offering more incentives like tax breaks to businesses in order to boost hiring. To emphasize the lack of faith Americans have in their government in relation to the job market, only 4 percent of those surveyed think that the government is doing everything it can to boost jobs creation. In fact, 18 percent blame Congress for the lack of jobs in the nation and 15 percent blame the Federal Government. Most of the blame however gets put on corporations and businesses with 21 percent believing our lack of available jobs is their doing.
Aside from playing the blame game, the survey also showed that the country’s thoughts on jobs and job security has changed in general. While before, many people did not accept temporary work as viable, now 63 percent of Americans view a temporary job more positively than they did in 2011. 86 percent of those surveyed think that a temporary position is a good step towards gaining work experience. Adding to the shift in attitude, 31 percent said job security was most important to them. This is a large increase from the 21 percent that said this last year. In fact, job security is so important that 64 percent of respondents said they would leave their current position if they were offered another position with guaranteed job security.
These shifts in attitude towards temporary work and job security shouldn’t be surprising given the current state of the economy and job market. Of course more people are going to accept temporary work because for many, it’s all they can find. It is much easier to look towards temporary work with optimism when your only other option is no job. Furthermore, job security will definitely be a huge priority for Americans because there is so much insecurity floating through the job market now. Workers may be nervous that their company will be the next to go under and they will be left with no job. Given the option, of course more workers would rather take a more stable and secure position.
There’s no telling where the job market will be headed in the next year or so. However, American voters have made it a point to make sure the presidential candidates know that jobs creation is the most important issue right now and without a clear and focused plan, they stand no chance.
SOURCE: MarketWatch
IMAGE: Courtesy of Center for Environment
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