High unemployment and a lack of jobs in Nevada has caused the state’s residents to be worried about their economic future, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the Reno Gazette-Journal and Channel 2 News by Research 2000.
According to the results of the study, 39 percent of the 600 residents polled believed that it would be “years” before the local economy will recover. Under this scenario a Nevada job boom won’t happen to until some time after 2010.
Over half the population remains more optimistic. Twenty-nine percent said that they feel that the Nevada job situation and the rest of the economy will improve some time during 2009. Another 24 percent felt that everything would right itself during 2010.
The poll found that 26 percent of the participants were either “afraid” or “very afraid” of losing their jobs. The majority of people said that they were slightly less worried, with 37 percent saying that they were “not too” afraid. Only 21 percent were “not at all” afraid.
A good portion, 33 percent, feels that 2009’s economic outlook is “dismal”. Around 21 percent believe that there will be “fits and starts”, 17 percent expect a complete “turnaround” and 16 percent think that Nevada will be in a “depression”.
The housing market has been blamed by several experts as being the cause of the state’s recession and the loss of so many jobs in Nevada. Forty-seven percent reported that they are “not at all” optimistic about the housing market recovering any at all in the next 12 months. Around 31 percent were “somewhat” optimist while 8 percent were “very” optimistic.
“This is pretty serious. The mood is very pessimistic,” said the University of Nevada, Reno’s economist Tom Cargill to a reporter for the Associated Press. “Until confidence returns, we won’t see a turnaround.”
The firm that conducted the poll, Research 2000, says that there is an error margin of 4 percentage points in either direction.