Number of Americans quitting jobs reached record high in September

The Hill ^ | 11/12/2021 | Sylvan Lane

[ChicagoConservative27]

The number and percentage of U.S. workers voluntarily leaving their jobs reached an all-time high in September, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

Roughly 4.4 million U.S. workers quit their jobs in September and the quits rate rose to 3 percent, according to the latest edition of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) survey, each a new record. The number of job openings stayed roughly even in August at 10.4 million.

The surge in American workers voluntarily leaving their jobs is the latest sign of growing worker power in the recovering labor market.

[ChicagoConservative27]

Are these people quitting to go on the dole or what?

[cuban leaf]

I think a lot of it is just people quitting one job and finding a better job or starting their own business. Except for people like me who retired about 4 months ago.

[Dutch Boy]

Just wait until the ones that are forced out of their job by the Biden mandates. I expect I will be one of those eventually.

[marron]

Maybe. The whole mask/vax regimen has got to be wearing people down. If they can find another way to survive, they will.

[Fish Speaker]

They’re probably saying no to the vac ...

[Red Badger]

They are being FORCED OUT by Biden’s ‘mandate’ of getting vaxxed.................

[Dr. Sivana]

Does this include college students returning to school?

[BEJ]

Dr. Strangefauci or how I learn to stop worrying and love COVID.

[Retrofitted]

Anecdotal, but... Four friends, in their thirties, quit their jobs because of the mandates. One started his own business and is doing pretty well. Two just found new jobs with local companies and not national corps. The last is taking a month off then going to take a lower paying/more flexible job so he can spend more time with his wife and new son.

I suspect that's the trend -- quitting because of mandates and doing something better -- that will not be reported at all.

[Sirius Lee]

The company owes no loyalty to you. You owe no loyalty to the company. The advice I give to all techies is to milk their employer for as long as it takes to master some discipline, and ask for a raise. If none is forthcoming then jump ship. You will always increase your salary that way. I say this as a now very comfortably retired (turning 51 this year) former business owner.

If you have talent the money will pour in.

[Tell It Right]

"I think a lot of it is just people quitting one job and finding a better job or starting their own business. Except for people like me who retired about 4 months ago."

I've always hated using the "labor force participation rate" as a barometer of the labor market health. This is because the "labor force" is defined as anyone 16 years or older (no maximum age) (but it does exclude everyone on disability, incarcerated, or in the military). So anyone old enough to retire is counted as not "participating" in the "labor force".

I like using labor force participation rate for other things, like if there are enough workers feeding into social insecurity to fund the SS payments. But not for if the labor market is healthy.

For the same reason, I hate using the GDP as a measure of the economy's health. About 1/3rd of GDP is gubment spending. So we make GDP go higher by having broke gubment spend a lot more. That'd be like saying my personal finances are totally awesome because my credit card spending went up. Exclude gubment spending from the GDP calculation and it'll be a healthy barometer of the economy. Likewise, if we were to exclude people 65 and older (or some other way to measure aging out of the workforce) as being part of the "labor force" then maybe labor force participation rate would be a good barometer of the jobs market.

[rllngrk33]

Are these people quitting to go on the dole or what?

Probably vax mandates and mask mandates, woke corporate policies, going Galt, new job, etc. I'm sure you can come up with a few more.

[mewzilla]

Watch the number skyrocket if more get a load of this tweet from Robert Malone...

Based Malone

I'm amazed that is still up.

[G Larry]

If the taxpayer funded “Childcare” goes through, expect to see a lot more mothers discover its cheaper to stay home, as “Childcare” for those who don’t qualify for taxpayer handouts, find the option too expensive.

[EC Washington]

At our company guys over 62 are retiring - when our Idiot HR VP told guys in the plant they had to wear masks, the retirements started.

This week, we lost our most experienced tool & die maker and 2 of our best welders. Many more to follow in January.

[nascarnation]

Those kind of experienced skilled trades people are hard to find these days. This isn’t going to go well for US manufacturing.

[dgbrown]

I am seriously considering leaving my job because I am burned out. I am vaxed so I will wait until the mandate kicks in and my value goes up.

[SamAdams76]

I'm unvaxxed but also burned out on my job. I got an exemption (because my company wants to keep me) but getting tired of doing the work of three people (at least).

I'm hanging in there for now but could easily quit at any time. I have a seven figure 401k and I can make it work if I have to.

[Nifster]

And then there are older folks like me who need to work to supplement their retirement and can’t get hired no matter what

[dangus]

Certainly not. It hasn’t gotten MORE advantageous to be on the dole in the last several months. A better guess is that many people took jobs to make ends meet during the pandemic layoffs that they had no intention of keeping. Plus, the labor market has gone tight with shocking speed, from very tight to worst-ever joblessness to shockingly tight again in most areas.