Optimism in job market highest in 17 years: Gallup

Optimism in the U.S. job market is the highest it has been in 17 years, with 67 percent of Americans saying they feel they can find a good job, according to a Gallup survey released Monday.

That finding is up from the 42 percent of respondents who said between August and October of 2016 that they thought “now is a good time to find a quality job.” 

{mosads}Gallup noted that it began asking this question during the first year of former President George W. Bush’s tenure. The percentage of Americans who said they believe it is the right time to search for a good job had not gone to 50 percent until President Trump took office, Gallup said.

The percentage of respondents who are optimistic about the job market rose in the latest survey, conducted from March to April, among both men and women. Seventy-one percent of men told pollsters that “now is a good time to find a quality job,” compared to 43 percent from August to October of 2016.

Fifty-nine percent of women, meanwhile, said it is the right time to search for a good job, while 40 percent said the same thing in 2016. 

The most recent poll of 1,024 individuals has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.