In the first part of the article, I present the recent concepts and research in sociology of city life, urban studies and sociology of social problems. In the second part, I discuss public opinion polls conducted in the U.S., Great Britain and Poland with special emphasis on the last three years i.e. the period of collapse of financial an insurance sector in the U.S. and in many other European countries. The Chicago Ecological School is today still an inspiration for contemporary research on urban social problems. American research is dominated by a friction between two concepts: assimilation (spatial assimilation theory) and stratification (place stratification model), as well as metropolitan development, which confirm a relative durability of housing and employment patterns among the groups of different racial, ethnic, cultural and economic character. Research on large European metropoli (Paris and London) points us towards the impact of spatial segregation of immigrant groups on the possibilites of finding and maintaining employment , in spite of social policy on social construction and intercultural integration. According to public opinion, the crisis in the U.S. and British financial sectors in the last three years has made unemployment into one of the most burning social issues. Polish research shows a long term accuracy of respondents' evaluation of the situation on the job market. Research on spatial variations of unemployment in Poland indicate that it is very high, especially at the commune (gmina) and district (powiat) levels. National and foreign (American) data suggests that rather stable patterns of spatial variations of employment/unemployment and wealth/poverty are being maintained.