That IS a record number…..
Some reasons…
The Pandemic and it’s collateral damage…
Pay disparities ….
Retirements….
Businesses have hired millions of American workers since April 2020, continuing to add employees even during a surge in coronavirus infections in the late summer. But workers have remained remarkably mobile, quitting jobs for a variety of reasons and often with little notice. Many businesses are so strapped to find and retain workers that they are dipping into budgets to offer higher pay and bonuses, creating the most worker-friendly labor market in recent history.
A number of factors have led to the churn. The September data came during a period when coronavirus cases were spiking, creating child-care and safety pressures for many employees as they rethought their daily routines. Many other workers, meanwhile, were lured to other jobs because of better pay and benefits as employers became desperate to fill openings. And a strong stock market combined with stimulus checks and other benefits have helped pad workers’ savings, making it easier for them to cut loose or retire, rather than hold on to a job they no longer want….
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The South, the West and Midwest have the highest numbers of workers quitting their jobs, at 3.3, 3.1 and 3.0 percent, respectively, while only 2.2 percent of workers in the Northeast are quitting jobs. This is consistent with trends seen in August, which showed that workers in more rural areas quit at a higher rate in part because they had more leverage to demand better pay….
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The country has regained the vast majority of jobs lost in the earliest months of the pandemic, but still has over 4 million fewer jobs than in February 2020.
Economists have been looking to the return to full employment as an important milestone, but labor shortages, continued coronavirus cases, and supply-chain issues have emerged to complicate that recovery. The high level of turnover among employees is adding to the mismatch, as lower-wage jobs are increasingly hard to fill because workers in those professions are finding alternatives.
And some employers are pulling out all stops to attract the workers in this climate.
Rucha Vankudre, an economist at labor market analytics firm Emsi Burning Glass, said that data the company has crunched on job postings shows that the number of employers offering starting bonuses has almost doubled since the beginning of the year and mostly in jobs that don’t require advanced degrees. Similar bumps have occurred in the number of employers willing to offer on-the-job training. The number of jobs postings that require background checks have declined, as well….