It seems that dissatisfied employees can have their pick of opportunities, experts say. A record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September as the sheer volume of available jobs is empowering workers to have their pick.
“Labor now has the initiative, and the era of paying individuals less than a livable wage has ended,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, reports CNN Business. “This strongly suggests that rising wages are going to be part and parcel of the economic landscape going forward.”
Those workers had 10.4 million vacant jobs to choose from in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. This was only a slight decrease from the 10.6 million open jobs in August.
Over the 12 months ending in September 2021, hires totaled 73.3 million and separations totaled 67.7 million, yielding a net employment gain of 5.6 million for the year.
While there were 7.4 million unemployed workers last month, reports the Wall Street Journal, the site Indeed.com figured the number of US openings at 11.2 million.
“The Delta variant is still visible in the September JOLTS report,” said Nick Bunker, director of economic research at Indeed.com. But he noted, “we do know from the October jobs report that the labor market did get on more stable ground.”
“The pace of people quitting across the labor market is remarkable,” Bunker said, “but the concentration among a few sectors is eye-popping. Quits are up the most in sectors where most work is in-person or relatively low paying.”
While the quit rate for employees was about 3 percent in September, according to the Washington Post, this could be due to several factors.
Some employers improved pay and benefits to attract hires. Coronavirus infections caused by the delta variant increased, making child care and school attendance less certain, and some workers were less eager to stay in jobs that require dealing with the public, like health care and education.
Retirements were up. “Workers are fed up with working conditions and feel unsafe and are quitting even though they might not immediately jump into a new job,” said an economist for Glassdoor.
