According to the Randstad Employee Confidence Index, worker confidence hit 52.4 percent in January, a jump from 47.4 percent in December, marking the biggest climb of the survey's history.
The research, which measures workers' confidence in their personal employment situation and optimism in the economic environment, also finds that workers' macroeconomic confidence grew 8.5 points this month to 40.1 percent.
"Economists' expectation of a stronger and more stable U.S. job market created a strong jump start for this first Employee Confidence Index of 2012," says Joanie Ruge, senior vice president and chief employment analyst of Randstad Holding US. "We remain very encouraged that our latest U.S. Employee Confidence Index rose five points — the biggest increase since the survey began over seven years ago. Coupled with this strong report, January U.S. payrolls surpassed estimates with employers adding 243,000 jobs.
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"There is no denying that this economic recovery has been volatile, but as we head into 2012, various U.S. economic reports are pointing to what many hope and believe will be an improving job market. And given our latest Employee Confidence Index, we would expect optimism to increase to coincide with this, which we believe may have already started to happen late last year."
Another 25 percent of respondents say they believe the economy is improving, which is a 7 percent increase from the December findings, while 52 percent of respondents report fewer jobs being available, down from 60 percent from the previous month. Worker confidence in the ability to find a new job in the year also slightly fell for the second month as 37 percent of respondents cite feeling optimistic in January as opposed to 38 percent in December and 40 percent in November. The number of U.S. workers who are confident in the future of their employers rose to 61 percent from 59 percent in January.
Among respondents, 72 percent believe they should keep their jobs in the next 12 months while 33 percent are likely to search for new employment in the next 12 months. This is up from 32 percent from the previous month.
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