Salary expectations for American workers hit new high: Fed survey

American job hunters are expecting more money and don’t want to take a new position for less than nearly $74,000 — a new record high.

The lowest average wage that workers are willing to accept for a new job jumped $794 from July to November — to $73,667, according to a New York Federal Reserve Bank survey on inflation and labor released last week.

The figure is the highest salary expectation since the monetary authority began the series.

The increase was most pronounced among workers under 45, as younger workers have looked for opportunities with greater flexibility and fulfillment amid the pandemic’s “Great Resignation.”

The heightened wage expectations also came as fewer workers were searching for jobs and satisfaction with compensation, benefits, and promotion opportunities among employers was up in November, the survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic SCE Labor Market found.

Still, the perceived probability of finding a new job increased for the fourth consecutive month, according to the mean survey response — and the probability of losing one’s job over the next year was lower.

The average job offer amount nationwide had also jumped over a four-month period from $60,310 in July to a record $61,187 in November.

Meanwhile, concerns about inflation were down among Americans, as inflation dropped to 7.1% in November from its peak of 9.1% in June.

The encouraging signs of a robust labor market come as the unemployment rate currently stands at 3.7% — near a half-century low, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are almost two job openings for every unemployed American.

Throughout the COVID pandemic, some 47 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs — a phenomenon dubbed the “Great Resignation” or the “Big Quit,” which peaked in November 2021, according to the Labor Department.