Over the past year worries about unemployment increased almost three times as reported by the new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey. The study revealed that 36% of the polled marked unemployment as the most urgent issue facing the country today as compared with 13% who felt that way in April 2008. In April last year 47% of the surveyed said rising prices and the inflation rate were the most important economic issues facing the country.

The second largest concern was inflation with 20% of the respondents noting this problem. It was followed by the mortgage crisis (16%), the stock market (14%) and taxes (11%). Besides, the respondents also noted that the economy itself remains the main issue facing the country with 63% of the polled saying the economy is their top concern with health care going second (54%).

With the highest unemployment rate in more than 25 years that is 8.1% about 4.4 million jobs were lost since the crisis burst out in December 2007.