A majority of adults nationwide continues to believe that those who work for the government have it easier than those in the private sector and get paid more for it.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of American adults believe private sector workers work harder than government workers, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Just eight percent (8%) say government employees are the harder workers, but another 25% are undecided.
The survey question is listed below:
1 Do you know anyone who is out of work and looking for a job?
 
2 Do you know anyone who, out of frustration with the difficult job market, has given up looking for a job?
 
3 Is the job market better than it was a year ago, worse than it was a year ago or about the same?
 
4 A year from today will unemployment be higher than it is today, lower than it is today or about the same as it is today?
 
5 If people can’t find work after an extended period of time, should the federal government hire them, pay for their retraining, extend their unemployment benefits indefinitely or do nothing at all?
    
6 If the federal government hires more people, is that good for the economy, bad for the economy, or does it have no impact on the economy?
 
7 Do government workers have more job security or less job security than workers in the private sector?

8 Who works harder, government workers or workers in the private sector?

9 Does the average government worker earn more annually than the average private sector worker?

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on April 1-2, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.