A poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. found that worries about unemployment have nearly tripled during the past year, CNN reported.

According to the poll, which surveyed 1,019 Americans, 36 percent of the respondents said unemployment was the most important economic issue facing the country today. Only 13 percent of respondents named unemployment as the top concern last April.

“Last spring, Americans were spooked by rising gas prices,” said Keating Holland, the CNN polling director. “Now they’re spooked by high unemployment figures and the growing concern that good jobs aren’t available.”

Twenty percent of the respondents said inflation was the second most important economic issue, followed by the mortgage crisis at 16 percent, the stock market at 14 percent and taxes at 11 percent.

Additionally, the survey found that when compared with last March, when a majority of workers were confident that there would be no layoffs at their companies, only 38 percent feel that way now.

“When wage earners lose confidence, it has ripple effects throughout the economy,” Holland said. “Consumption patterns are based in part on workers’ prospects of keeping their jobs or finding new ones. Right now, American workers remain confident that they will keep their own jobs, but many see layoffs in the future at their workplace, and they aren’t confident that other good jobs are out there.”

That feeling was reflected in the poll results, which found only 49 percent of Americans were confident they could land another good job if they were laid off, and 51 percent were not confident at all.