A new poll finds that younger Americans are more pessimistic than older ones about the state of the job market. This is a sudden reversal from just three years ago, when older Americans were more pessimistic. In the United States until 2023 and in many countries globally, young people tend to be more optimistic about the job market than older people. Gallup found that, typically, around the world, younger people are more likely by 10 percentage points than older ones to report their local job market is good. In the United States, younger people are 21 percentage points less likely to do so than older ones.

A new Gallup survey finds that Americans' outlook on the job market is increasingly pessimistic. The negative shift may seem incongruous with the low unemployment rate, but the findings likely reflect an ongoing hiring drought. Just 28% of workers in a quarterly Gallup survey conducted in the last part of 2025 said now is a "good time" to find a job, with 72% saying it is a bad time. Those figures are a sharp reversal from just a few years ago, in mid-2022, when 70% said it was a good time. Pessimism is especially pronounced among young people and college graduates.

Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, although Harris earns slightly better marks on elements such as taxes for the middle class. A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor and about 7 in 10 say the nation is going in the wrong direction. But the findings reaffirm that Trump has lost what had been an advantage on the economy, which many voters say is the most important issue this election season above abortion, immigration, crime and foreign affairs.