Not even half of all Idaho adults are working full time or are self-employed, a new Idaho Politics Weekly poll finds.

And nearly 30 percent are retired, finds Dan Jones & Associates in a new survey.

The results:

  • 36 percent of adult Idahoans are employed full time.
  • 9 percent are self-employed – and so considered also working full time.

That’s 45 percent of the workforce.

  • 8 percent are working only part-time.
  • 3 percent are unemployed, but looking for work.
  • 2 percent are unemployed and are no longer looking for work.
  • 29 percent are retired.
  • 10 percent list themselves as homemakers.
  • 3 percent said they are students.
  • And 2 percent declined to answer the question.

Most U.S. states have an aging population. And Idaho is no different.

From the above answers, we can say that 53 percent of the adult population is working, full or part-time, to help support, through Social Security taxes and or pension programs, the 29 percent that are now retired.

Jones also finds that only 6 percent of Idahoans have never held a part-time or full-time employment position – those would include the disabled or homemakers or others who never actually made a wage.

  • 13 percent have held a part-time job at one point in their working lives.
  • 32 percent have held a full-time position.
  • 48 percent have held both a full time and part time job at some point.

Jones polled 603 adults from July 22 to Aug. 4; the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.