Must-Read Findings You May Have Missed

We're edging toward more than 2 million unique visitors for the month of October, making it our second-best month of the year after August.

While we know many of our visitors are tracking the GOP presidential nomination race and President Obama's approval rating, here are 10 must-read stories from October you might have missed:

• Gallup Finds Significant Drop in Unemployment During October: Our daily tracking of U.S. unemployment without seasonal adjustment finds a clear sustained decline this month.
• Republicans, Democrats Disagree on Gov't Role in Creating Jobs: Americans tell us in their own words what they think is the best way to create more jobs.
• Gov't Regulations at Top of Small-Business Owners' Problem List: Small business owners detail the biggest problems they face, putting government regulations at the top of the list.
• Chinese Rate Their Job Market Better Than Americans: Chinese are more positive than Americans both about their local job market and their local economic conditions.
• More Egyptians Finding It Difficult to Make Ends Meet: Egyptians are more likely now than before the revolution to say they are "finding it very difficult" to get by on their present income.
• Worldwide, Residents Stay Where the "Good Jobs" Are: Gallup's worldwide research documents a clear relationship between full-time formal employment and community attachment. 
• In U.S., 4% View Their Lives Poorly Enough to Be Suffering: Americans remain among the least likely in the world to be "suffering," despite an uptick seen during early 2009.
• Unhealthy U.S. Workers' Absenteeism Costs $153 Billion: Full-time workers in the U.S. miss an estimated 450 million additional days of work each year due to health conditions.
• Majority of American Workers Not Engaged in Their Jobs: Seven out of 10 U.S. workers are not engaged in their jobs, making them less likely to be productive.
• More Americans Now Normal Weight Than Overweight: Americans appear to be slimming down at least slightly, according to our daily tracking of Americans' self-reported weight.
• U.S. Students' Entrepreneurial Energy Waiting to Be Tapped: Our poll of students in grades 5-12 reveals that many have entrepreneurial interest, but few are getting relevant experience and education.

Get caught up on more Gallup stories by searching within your favorite topics. Get new Gallup stories as soon as they are delivered by signing up for our alerts.

Under-Reported Underemployment Findings

With so much editorial space devoted to the topic of unemployment in the U.S., I'm surprised that few have reported on the findings below.

In our story last week, our Jenny Marlar -- one of the brilliant minds behind Gallup's daily measure of unemployment and underemployment -- revealed the different realities faced by different groups.

Gallup estimates that 30% of 18- to 29-year-olds in the workforce are underemployed.  They are joined by 27% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics, and 25% with a high school education or less.  College graduates and postgraduates fare much better, but at 12% and 9%, respectively, want more work than they have.

As a reminder, Gallup defines these categories as follows:

• A respondent is unemployed if he/she reports not being employed in the last seven days, while actively looking for a job in the last four weeks and being able to begin work.
• A respondent is underemployed if he/she is unemployed or works less than 30 hours per week while wanting to work more than 30 hours per week.

For every group, the percentage underemployed is about double the percentage unemployed.  That means for every person who is not employed and looking for work, there is another person like him or her who is working some but less than they would like.  Any assessment of the U.S. employment situation is incomplete without taking this other type of job seeker into account.

At the national level, things are looking somewhat better recently, with unemployment and underemployment down sharply in early October.  Still, it will take sustained improvement across all groups and levels of underemployment to keep this trend going.

If you prefer to look at the silver lining, here's a look at who is employed to their desired capacity:

Gallup tracks underemployment and unemployment worldwide.  Check out our global data in our Global Employment interactive and learn other under-reported realities about the global war for good jobs in our CEO's new book, "The Coming Jobs War."

To make sure you get all of Gallup's breaking news on unemployment, underemployment, and jobs worldwide, sign up to receive the topic jobs or economy via email alerts or RSS feeds.

"States of Mind" and Job Creation

The world needs 1.8 billion new, formal "good jobs."

That finding -- and new ways to think about creating those jobs -- are revealed in "The Coming Jobs War," a new book by Gallup CEO Jim Clifton.

The book is based on the same research you're used to reading about daily on Gallup.Com. And if you're still wondering if there's a master plan to all of the great data we collect worldwide, here's a great quote from the book that sums it up:

"Classical economics can't analyze your state of mind well because it records after-the-fact transactions and outcomes. But leaders need to know those states of mind because what creates behavior is decision, and what creates decision is a state of mind or intent. And intent decides the fate of the world."

We are systematically measuring "states of mind" everywhere on everything that ultimately leads to behavior that creates -- or destroys -- jobs and GDP.

Here are some key findings we've reported on Gallup.com that relate to the big ideas in the book:

• What the whole world wants is a good job. Gallup defines a "good job" as being employed full-time for an employer. Forty percent of the world's workforce had such a job in 2009 and 2010, while 19% were underemployed and 7% where unemployed. The situation is of course far worse in some countries than others.
• Joblessness affects everything. People who are underemployed and unemployed are less likely to be "thriving." They are also in worse physical and emotional health. Poor health reduces productivity and productivity equals jobs.
• Cities are key. In countries where more people have good jobs, residents are more likely to be satisfied with their communities, more likely to recommend them to others, and considerably less likely to want to leave. Some cities do far better than others.
• Entrepreneurs are key. It takes a certain type of person to not just innovate, but to create jobs. That talent is more prevalent in some places than others.
• High-energy workplaces are key. There is more job creation in workplaces where workers are engaged. For workers' wellbeing, being actively disengaged can be worse than having no job at all.
• Schools are key. Too many students are not hopeful, engaged, or thriving -- three dimensions critical to empowering them to become productive workers and job creators.
• Health problems add up. Obesity and smoking are among the preventable conditions that lead to health problems that cost in money and productivity.
• It takes more than GDP. High wellbeing and higher GDP are related, but there's more to the story. Other conditions help to foster high wellbeing, and wellbeing measures can identify problems that GDP may miss.
  

The International Labour Organisation agrees with Gallup and Jim Clifton that the global economy is facing a major jobs shortfall. The simple truth is that jobs are created by people. That's why Gallup measures and reports on all of the states of mind that foster -- and impede -- sustainable job creation.

To stay on top of it, be sure to pick up "The Coming Jobs War" and to sign up for Gallup news alerts.