The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that 4.3 MM Americans quit their jobs in August 2021, up from 4MM in July. The quit rate is highest it’s been since the statistic became available in 2000.
Most of the workers quitting worked in the food services industry and hospitality (892,000), retail (721,000), professional business services (706,000) and health care and social assistance (534,000).
See also:
- One interpretation is that workers are fed up with poor working conditions related to COVID-19.
- Quit rate can serve as a measure of workers willingness or ability to leave jobs. 45% of jobs can be done remotely.
- Half of Millennials and Gen Z would consider quitting if employers don’t allow remote work.
- COVID-19 is a vehicle of fantasmic projection, I’m sure each side will be able to use these statistics to support their agenda.
Links to this note
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54% Percent of Unemployed Job Hunters Are Looking to Work from Home
The March WFH Research survey results show that 54% of unemployed respondents are either exclusively looking for jobs that allow them to work from home or prefer jobs that allow them to work from home.
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Supply and Demand Are Imperfectly Linked
We tend to think of supply and demand as curves that companies neatly fit into and move proportionally. However, post-Keynesianism economics shows that effective demand is a better way to understand how supply and demand works in reality.
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Quit Rates Declined to Pre-Pandemic Levels
It might be the end of the the Great Resignation. A survey from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics found that quit rates fell to 2.4% in April 2023 after peaking at 3% a year ago in April 2022. Hires and total separations also fell during that time period.
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More people in the US have quit their job in 2021 then ever before (since it started being tracked). COVID-19 made people re-evaluate whether or not their jobs were worth it—many have decided to change jobs are quit altogether, especially in retail and food services.