We received a disappointment last week when the nonfarm payrolls report indicated that U.S. average hourly earnings shrank slightly in December. But there are signs that things are still looking up for the American worker.
Two reports that came out on Tuesday morning contain good news.
The first is the NFIB Small Business Optimism survey (PDF). It showed that 17 percent of small businesses plan to hike wages in the next three months. That's the best level since the economic crisis struck. There was also a jump in the number of companies that identified "labor quality" as their top business problem, indicating that companies are having a harder time finding workers. That should translate into higher pay.
The second report that came out was the November JOLTS report, which measures the number of job openings in the country. As of November, there were 4.97 million job openings, up from 4.83 million in October. The reading was also nicely above the 4.85 million that economists were expecting.
This tells the same story as the NFIB survey. It's getting harder and harder for employers to fill jobs. In this environment, the balance of power should begin to tip more toward workers.
Joe Weisenthal is a managing editor at Bloomberg Digital.
