---
title: "Anxious about the economy, more Americans worry about their jobs"
description: "About six-in-ten Americans worry that they will lose their jobs due to the current state of the economy."
date: "2013-11-26"
authors:
  - name: "Bruce Drake"
    job_title: "Former Senior Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/bruce-drake/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/11/26/anxious-about-the-economy-more-americans-worry-about-their-jobs/"
categories:
  - "Business & Workplace"
  - "Economic Inequality"
  - "Personal Finances"
---

# Anxious about the economy, more Americans worry about their jobs

As the recovery from the Great Recession proceeds at an [uneven pace](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/09/12/five-years-after-market-crash-u-s-economy-seen-as-no-more-secure/#recession-impact) for many Americans, a [Washington Post-Miller Center poll](http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/09/28/National-Politics/Polling/release_266.xml) taking the public’s pulse on the economy finds a high degree of anxiety among many about being able to get ahead financially, the difficulty of finding good jobs and, for those that are employed, concern about losing them.

[![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/02/FT_GOP_Conservative1-jpg.webp?w=189)](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/02/FT_GOP_Conservative1-jpg.webp)

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2013/11/DN_Losing_Jobs.png)](http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/09/28/National-Politics/Polling/release_266.xml)
*(Credit: Washington Post-Miller Center poll)*

About six-in-ten (62%) of those surveyed said they worried a lot or a little about losing their job because of the economy, with 32% saying they worried a lot. The joint Post-Miller Center poll said this figure [surpassed the level of concern](http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/among-american-workers-poll-finds-unprecedented-anxiety-about-jobs-economy/2013/11/25/fb6a5ac8-5145-11e3-a7f0-b790929232e1_story.html) about losing jobs registered in more than a dozen surveys dating to the 1970s. The poll was conducted in September.

The survey noted that 54% of workers earning $35,000 or less worried a lot about losing their jobs compared to 37% who had that concern in 1992.

About three-quarters (74%) said finding good jobs had become harder.

Nearly half (48%) in the poll said they felt less financially secure as they did a few years ago, compared with 23% who felt more secure and 29% who described their circumstances as about the same.

While more than half (54%) considered their current standard of living to be better than that of their parents at the same age, a smaller number —39% —believed their children’s standard of living would be better than theirs at the same age.

The lingering effects of the Great Recession had also been captured in a [Pew Research Center poll](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/09/12/five-years-after-market-crash-u-s-economy-seen-as-no-more-secure/#recession-impact) conducted in September. More than half (54%) of those surveyed said their household incomes had hardly recovered and 52% said the same about the job situation.