Poll: Unemployment top worry

ATLANTA, March 16 (UPI) -- Worries about unemployment in the United States have tripled during the last year, suggests a national poll.

Thirty-six percent of people interviewed for the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll said unemployment is the top economic issue facing the nation today. Thirteen percent felt that way in the poll taken last April, CNN reported Monday.

In the latest poll, worries about inflation were second with 20 percent, followed by the mortgage crisis with 16 percent, the stock market with 14 percent and taxes with 11 percent.

"Last spring, Americans were spooked by rising gas prices," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. "Now they're spooked by high unemployment figures and the growing concern that good jobs aren't available."

The country's unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in February -- the highest in more than 25 years. An estimated 4.4 million jobs have been lost in the United States since December 2007.

The poll conducted Thursday through Sunday interviewed 1,019 adults by telephone and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.