Employment confidence has edged back up from pandemic-era lows as people's perceptions about job availability improved.
The Westpac-McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index rose by 2.4 points to 91.6 in the December quarter.
A reading below 100 meant pessimists outweighed the optimists.
Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon said perceptions about job availability - a measure that had a close relationship with the unemployment rate - improved for the first time in two years.
"The latest reading is still consistent with the unemployment rate reaching 5 percent in the near future, but offers some hope that it may not reach much beyond that," Gordon said.
He said the employment confidence index and other indicators suggested the job market was starting to stabilise.
"Lower interest rates are helping to boost confidence across some parts of the economy, though it takes time for them to have their full effect on demand and ultimately on hiring," Gordon said.
Confidence amongst public sector workers fell 6.8 points to 87.8 in the quarter, while in the private sector, confidence rose 4.4 points to 92.6.
"While both public and private sector employees expressed a similar outlook around the availability of jobs, those working in the public sector are taking a considerably more pessimistic view of their current and future earnings prospects compared with those in the private sector," McDermott Miller market research director Imogen Rendall said.
The survey was carried out in early December with a sample size of 1553, and had a margin of error of 2.5 percent.