Americans more confident of finding better-paying jobs

A Gallup poll found that 35 percent of Americans think now is a good time to find a quality job — one with a higher wage.

That may not seem like much, but the July reading is the highest since December 2007, the start of the Great Recession, and a little better than the decade average before the recession. Twice since the recovery officially began in June 2009, the figure dropped to just 8 percent, most recently in late 2011.

The upturn in confidence reflects what could be an important development in the labor market: an improvement in the quality of new jobs.

Throughout the recovery the problem with the labor market wasn’t just that hiring was sluggish; a lot of new jobs were low-paying. In the last few years, the biggest payroll gains have been at restaurants, retail stores and temporary-help firms. Recently, as employment growth has risen, so has the quality of new jobs.

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Los Angeles Times