Even as the government releases a new report showing surprisingly little job creation in May and an increase in the unemployment rate, nearly one-out-of-three Americans predict that the unemployment rate will be higher a year from now.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 31% of American Adults think unemployment will be higher a year from today, up five points from March and the most pessimistic attitude toward the jobs market since last June.

Nearly as many (29%) think the unemployment rate will be lower in a year’s time, up slightly from the previous survey as well. Thirty-two percent (32%) say the rate of unemployment will stay about the same. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Still, 21% of Americans think the job market is better now that it was a year ago, a level of optimism exceeded only once in the past 18 months. Generally during that period, anywhere from 14% to 19% shared that view. But nearly twice as many (39%) feel the job market is worse than a year ago, while 35% say it’s about the same.

In May of last year, the unemployment rate was 9.6%. Last month, it stood at 9.1%.

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on June 1-2, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.