September 25, 2012 3:00 PM
Right Track/Wrong Track & Unemployment
The schedule: 41 days until the election| October 3, 2012 | 1st Presidential Debate – Denver, CO |
| October 11, 2012 | Vice Presidential Debate – Danville, KY |
| October 16, 2012 | 2nd Presidential Debate – Hempstead, NY |
| October 22, 2012 | 3rd Presidential Debate – Boca Raton, FL |
| November 6, 2012 | Election Day |
Post-Labor Day and the Party conventions, there has been an appreciable uptick in the number of Americans who think the country is going in the right direction as opposed to being on the wrong track.
Right direction scores through mid-September range from 38-41%. The high point of the year up until now was 34%.
| Last Date | Poll | Right Direction | Wrong Track |
| 9/17 | AP/GfK | 41 | 32 |
| 9/16 | NBC/WSJ | 39 | 55 |
| 9/12 | CBS/NYT | 38 | 57 |
| 8/25 | WP/ABC | 29 | 69 |
| 8/20 | NBC/WSJ | 32 | 61 |
| 8/9 | Pol/GW/BG | 32 | 61 |
| 7/22 | NBC/WSJ | 32 | 60 |
| 7/16 | CBS/NYT | 30 | 64 |
| 7/8 | ABC/WP | 33 | 63 |
| 6/24 | NBC/WSJ | 31 | 61 |
The unemployment rate seems to be slowly inching downward. As of mid- September the unadjusted rate of unemployment is 7.9%, which is the lowest it has been since Gallup began collecting unemployment data in January 2010. [Note: The adjusted rate produced by Gallup matches very closely that which is produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.]
| BLS* | Gallup** | |
| (Adjusted) | ||
| August | 8.1% | 16.6% |
| July | 8.3% | 17.1% |
| June | 8.2% | 17.3% |
| May | 8.2% | 18.0% |
| April | 8.1% | 18.2% |
| March | 8.2% | 18.0% |
| February | 8.3% | 19.1% |
| January | 8.3% | 18.7% |
| Average 2011 | 9.0% | 18.7% |
| Average 2010 | 9.6% | 18.8% |
| Average 2009 | 9.3% |
*Seasonally adjusted rate/Bureau of Labor Statistics
**Gallup combines an unadjusted unemployed rate with those who are working part-time but want full-time employment.
