NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A big ray of hope on the job market from the nation's small businesses.

According to the latest survey from the National Federation of Independent Business, plans to hire new workers in November hit their strongest level since the year 2000. Of the 574 survey respondents (representing the NFIB's more than 600,000 members), 19% plan to add workers in the next few months.

Remember that small business accounts for more than half of the jobs in the U.S. so if these folks are revving up it's potentially good news for the economy overall.

What's interesting is that this has been going on for awhile, even as the government's numbers on jobs and layoffs have been a bit mixed. Over the prior three months, 51% of the firms in the NFIB survey were hiring or attempting to hire, with 76% of those trying to hire reporting few or no qualified applicants.

In fact, according to Bill Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist, 11% of the owners say that their number one business problem is "availability of qualified labor." Those surveyed say this is more important right now than taxes, regulations or insurance costs!

"Overall, it appears that the small business sector is in the process of creating a substantial number of new jobs, good news for an already strong holiday season," Dunkelberg notes.

Certainly Intel's report last night that demand is up for chips because demand is up for PC's and the like is another straw in the wind confirming this optimistic view of the economy. But we just heard earlier in the week that Wal-Mart's sales overall were lousy in November. So is the economy chugging right along as the year draws to a close and picking up steam for 2005? Or is it running out of gas?

Small business says no. It remains to be seen if the rest of the country agrees.  

Kathleen Hays is economics correspondent for CNN and contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.