The employment climate appears to be improving in a major way.
The percentage of Americans who say now is a good time to find a quality job jumped to 36 percent in December from 30 percent last month, according to
a new Gallup poll.
The December reading is the highest since November 2007, just before the Great Recession began.
To be sure, 61 percent of the 805 adults surveyed still say it's a bad time to find a quality job, though that's an improvement from 66 percent in November and 73 percent in December 2013.
The survey results indicate "Americans are seeing improving job conditions," writes Gallup's Rebecca Riffkin.
"While [some other job] indicators are still not as good as what was seen prior to the start of the recession, they are much improved from 2009 to 2011, when the economy was still slowly recovering."
Meanwhile, though many observers were impressed with the 321,000-person surge in payrolls during November, an almost-three-year high, some other employment numbers weren't so pretty, writes
CNBC's Jeff Cox.
The payroll figure came from a survey of businesses and was seasonally adjusted. But the survey of households showed a job gain of just 4,000. Unemployment grew by 115,000, while the labor force expanded by 119,000.
In addition, the labor force participation rate was 62.8 percent last month, unchanged from October and barely above September's 36-year low of 62.7 percent. And 77,000 of the new jobs were part time, while full-time jobs plunged 150,000.
"Taken in total, a peek beneath the hood of these numbers suggests a job market that still has a ways to go," Cox writes.
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