What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending June 2, 2018

The U.S. unemployment rate is now at 3.8%, an 18-year low and tying April 2000 as the lowest level since 1969. Trumponomics or happenstance? The voters will decide in November.

Americans certainly have renewed confidence in the job market.

Seven-out-of-10 now believe it is possible for anyone who really wants to work to find a job. Prior to 2014, that figure regularly ran in the 40s and 50s.

The number of Americans who know someone who is looking for work or has given up the search has fallen to its lowest level in years of regular Rasmussen Reports surveying.

Forty-two percent (42%) of voters say the country is heading in the right direction.

President Trump’s job approval ratings remain in the high 40s.

Republicans and Democrats are running neck-and-neck on the Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot again this week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is considering cancelling the Senate's month-long August recess in order to get more work done. Republicans and Democrats agree that Congress spends too much time away from Capitol Hill.

One thing Congress wants to know is how much spying the Obama administration was doing on the Trump campaign. The latest Rasmussen Minute looks at public attitudes about President Obama’s Spygate.

With a summit meeting between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un seemingly back on track, voter worries about a nuclear attack from North Korea continue to fade. But Democrats still fear the president is making things worse.

Trump recently signed a series of executive orders that, among other things, makes it easier to fire unionized federal workers. That's something most Americans agree is too difficult to do, although they still tend to support unions for public employees.

Most Americans have consistently said in surveys for years that government workers don't work as hard as those in the private sector but get paid more. They also think government workers have more job security.

Perhaps that helps explain why support for putting the best people into government work rather than the private sector is up, especially among young Democratic voters.

Arne Duncan, Obama's secretary of Education, has proposed that parents across America keep their children out of school for a few days after Labor Day to pressure Congress into passing more gun control laws. Most adults with school-aged kids oppose such a protest and are concerned it will take away from classroom time.

Interestingly, Duncan’s policy to slow the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline” has been blamed for the failure to stop the shooter at a Florida high school despite his numerous prior brushes with the authorities. Most Americans think government error is more responsible than a lack of gun control for the Valentine’s Day school massacre in Florida.

Following the controversial arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia shop in April, Starbucks has rolled out a new policy that allows anyone to use its facilities whether or not they make a purchase. But only 32% of Americans think the new Starbucks policy will be good for business.

In other surveys last week:

 -- Delaware recently became the first state in the nation to fully ban child marriage for all minors, and a similar bill is about to get a vote in the New Jersey State Assembly. Most voters think there should be a legal minimum age for marriage nationally and that marriage should be outlawed for minors.

-- Americans are closely divided over the wisdom of the National Football League’s new policy on player protests during “The Star Spangled Banner,” but the policy appears unlikely to have much negative impact on viewership.

-- Memorial Day, a time when Americans honor those who lost their lives while serving in the U.S. military, remains one of the nation's most important holidays.

Visit the Rasmussen Reports home page for the latest current polling coverage of events in the news. The page is updated several times each day.

Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.