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A majority of employed U.S. working adults are open to changing jobs in 2007, according to a recent Yahoo! HotJobs survey.

The survey -- in which nearly two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) said they would consider new job opportunities in 2007 -- suggests the U.S. workforce is full of "passive job seekers" looking to improve their prospects.

Optimism about new jobs in 2007 was also common among survey-takers, as approximately 70 percent believe opportunities for job seekers are better or the same as one year ago.

"With recent good news about low unemployment rates and overall wage increases, conditions are favorable for getting ahead, and most workers know it," said Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing for Yahoo! HotJobs. "Furthermore, online search and resume tools make it easier than ever to connect with new employers and new opportunities that will give people the job satisfaction they want."

More than 5,300 working adults in the global Yahoo! audience took the online survey during the last two weeks of October 2006.

Money talks

Many survey-takers registered dissatisfaction with their current wages, which may be adding to the desire for job changes. Salary ranked as the main thing workers would change about their jobs (39 percent), with benefits coming in a distant second place at 12 percent. In addition, three-fourths of respondents said they did not get the raise or bonus they expected in 2005.

While 27 percent of the jobseekers believe they could get a better salary in a new job, recruiting expert Cheryl Ferguson stresses that intentional negotiating is also a key factor in securing a higher salary.

"Candidates who do some homework, know what they want, and why they want it are almost always successful in getting what they ask for during salary negotiations," she wrote in a recent article for Yahoo! HotJobs about successful negotiating strategy.

Fulfillment trumps money

When asked how they define success, respondents opted for less tangible benefits than salary. Nearly half (46 percent) said having a work/life balance was the key to success, while 41 percent equated "feeling fulfilled" with success. Only 9 percent considered a high salary as the indicator of success.

The ideas about success that emerged from the survey do not surprise Liz Bywater, president of Bywater Consulting Group, a Philadelphia-based firm focused on optimizing organizational performance.

"People have come to realize that it's not all about money," she said. "If they're missing out on time with their kids and their spouses, they're likely to feel that traditional job 'success' (such as a high salary) just isn't worth the trade-off."

Concepts like fulfillment and work/life balance are difficult to quantify and mean different things for each employee, so job seekers must evaluate what is important to them.

"Before accepting any position, job seekers ought to get a realistic sense of the culture of that particular workplace: what the demands are, what type of hours are expected, how extensively they'd be expected to travel, and more," said Bywater. "They can then assess whether there's a fit between the demands of the job and their own requirements for maintaining a satisfactory work/life balance."

"An attractive salary alone is unlikely to lead to a sense of success or contentment at work or at home," she added.