According to a survey released today by Gallup, the percentage of Americans saying now is a good time to find a quality job jumped to 36% in December, up six percentage points from November. “This is by one point the highest percentage found since November 2007, prior to the start of the Great Recession,” says Gallup.

Younger adults continue to be more optimistic than older Americans about the quality job situation (43% “good time” vs. 29%, respectively).

Gallup says that the jump in optimism is a sign that Americans are seeing improving job conditions. “While these indicators are still not as good as what was seen prior to the start of the recession, they are much improved from 2009 to 2011, when the economy was still slowly recovering.”

As you can note from the chart above, since Gallup started its quality jobs index in August 2001, the highest “good time” percentage Gallup has found was 48% in January 2007, while the lowest was 8% — found several times, most recently in November 2011.

While Americans are as positive about the job market as they were in December 2007, the majority, 61%, continue to say it is a bad time to find a quality job. That has improved, however, from the 66% seen last month and the 73% in December 2013.

(Read more on Gallup.com: “U.S. Quality Job Outlook Back at Pre-Recession Levels“