5 charts that show American workers are psyched about the job market

On Friday, we'll get the May jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report should more or less reflect an economy in which jobs are growing and unemployment is coming down.

Deutsche Bank economist Torsten Slok compiled data that shows workers are as optimistic about their jobs and wages today as they were since before the financial crisis.

First off, the percentage of workers expecting their income and wages to rise this year is at the highest since the middle of 2008. About 55% of workers surveyed by the University of Michigan felt their household income would increase over the next year. This is incredibly close to the outlook of workers' pre-Recession, and it indicates an increasing feeling of confidence among those in the workforce.

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Not only are workers optimistic that their income will rise, but also that the amount will rise. According to the survey, workers are expecting their income to increase about 3% more during the next year. This is the largest expected growth since the Recession began. The expectations also closely correlate with the growth in employment cost index (ECI), a measure of how much companies are spending on workers' wages and salaries. ECI has increased 2.5% year-over-year.

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While workers can expect wage increases, companies must also be willing to give them those raises.

Good news here too: companies are increasingly saying they are expecting to escalate workers' compensation.

Around 12%-13% of companies said that they were going to raise wages, up from a low of around 3% in 2010.

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Unemployed workers don't have as stiff competition for new jobs. The number of people available per job opening has dropped below the pre-Crisis average.

Slok illustrated this by adding the total unemployed and those they say they want a job, and dividing that by job openings that companies have.

Essentially, there are 3 people not employed for every job that companies post. This is down from a high of nearly 10 in the middle of 2009 and shows that there are fewer people fighting for each new job.

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Another indicator of a strengthening labor market is the number of people willing to quit. This number has been on the rise in recent months and has nearly recovered to the pre-Crisis average. The JOLTS, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, voluntary quits rate is around 3.75 % and has been steadily rising since late-2011.

If people are confident enough to quit their job, that means they expect that they can find work somewhere else, indicating strength in the job market.

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From optimism about wages to ease of landing jobs, Slok's charts show not only are numbers about the labor market improving, but workers' outlooks are getting brighter too.