Employee Confidence in December Near 8-Year High, Reports Randstad Index

 According to the Randstad U.S. Employee Confidence Index, which tracks U.S. workers’ monthly perspectives about jobs and the economy, the December index increased 1.3 points from 58.3 to a nearly eight-year high of 60.0. Similarly, the Randstad Macroeconomic Confidence Index, which measures employees’ confidence in the overall strength of the economy, rose 1.6 percentage points to 50.5 in December from 48.9 in November.

Workers expressed high confidence in overall job availability, their ability to find a new job, and the future of their current employer. The Randstad Personal Confidence Index, a measure of workers’ confidence in their own employment situation, rose 1.1 points in December to 69.6 from 68.5 the previous month. Approximately three in 10 employees (29 percent) expressed increased confidence in the availability of jobs, a reading that remained unchanged from November. Meanwhile, half of workers felt confident in their ability to find a job, and 62 percent said they were confident in the future of their current employer in December.

“We are pleased to see workers’ confidence levels soaring as a result of the economy having added at least 200,000 jobs for 10 consecutive months, the longest uninterrupted stretch at that level in more than three decades,” said Jim Link, Chief HR Officer at Randstad North America. “While economists applauded the impressive job creation numbers and the long-awaited wage increase in November’s employment report, those results likely have put many employers on high alert to aggressively address talent supply and demand issues. The United States created 2.65 million new jobs this year, which is the largest annual increase since 1999. One thing is quite clear, companies are looking for employees.”