A record number of Americans quit their jobs in September
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.
Workers are quitting in search for better pay or better jobs, representing a fundamental shift in America's labor market.
"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. "This strongly suggests that rising wages are going to be part and parcel of the economic landscape going forward."
The nation had 10.4 million open jobs that month as the worker shortage crisis continues, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Friday. It was a modest decrease from the 10.6 million open jobs in August.
Jobs particularly increased in the health care and sector and in state and local government.
"The Delta variant is still visible in the September JOLTS report," said Nick Bunker, director of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab, in emailed comments. But he noted "we do know from the October jobs report that the labor market did get on more stable ground."
The slowing demand for workers in the leisure and hospitality industry was the cause of the modest decline in available jobs in September.
"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."
The arts, entertainment and recreation sector saw the largest increase in quits, followed by other services and state and local government education.
Employers hired 6.5 million people, while separations — which include voluntary quits — stood at 6.2 million. Compared with the huge number of jobs available, this underscores America's worker shortage problem.
During the pandemic, millions of workers have dropped out of the labor force. For some, care responsibilities at home prevent them from going back to work, while for others the risk of contracting the virus is still too high. These factors particularly affected women: As of October, the number of women not in the labor force was nearly 3 million people higher than before Covid.
But even if all of these women went go back to work, America would still have additional jobs to fill.
As of September, the nation was still short 4.7 million jobs compared with February 2020, before the pandemic hit. Job creation slowed in August and September amid the threat posed by the Delta variant but sped up again in October, as last week's jobs report showed.
9 月美国辞职人数创历史新高
9 月份，创纪录的 440 万美国人辞去了工作，因为可用工作的绝对数量使工人能够自由选择。
工人正在辞职以寻求更高的薪酬或更好的工作，这代表着美国劳动力市场的根本性转变。
RSM US 首席经济学家约瑟夫·布鲁苏埃拉斯 (Joseph Brusuelas) 表示：“工党现在拥有主动权，支付个人低于宜居工资的时代已经结束。” “这有力地表明，工资上涨将成为未来经济格局的重要组成部分。”
美国劳工统计局周五公布的数据显示，随着工人短缺危机的持续，当月美国有 1040 万个空缺职位。与 8 月份的 1060 万个空缺职位相比略有下降。
医疗保健和部门以及州和地方政府的就业机会特别增加。
“Delta 变量在 9 月的 JOLTS 报告中仍然可见，”Indeed Hiring Lab 经济研究主管尼克邦克在电子邮件评论中说。但他指出，“我们确实从 10 月份的就业报告中了解到劳动力市场确实变得更加稳定。”
休闲和酒店业对工人的需求放缓是 9 月份可用工作岗位小幅下降的原因。
邦克说：“整个劳动力市场的员工离职速度非常惊人，但少数行业的集中度令人瞠目结舌。在大多数面对面工作或薪酬相对较低的行业中，离职人数最多。”
艺术、娱乐和休闲部门的退出人数增幅最大，其次是其他服务以及州和地方政府教育。
雇主雇用了 650 万人，而离职（包括自愿离职）为 620 万人。与大量可用的工作岗位相比，这凸显了美国的工人短缺问题。
在大流行期间，数以百万计的工人退出了劳动力市场。对一些人来说，在家照顾的责任使他们无法重返工作岗位，而对另一些人来说，感染病毒的风险仍然太高。这些因素对女性的影响尤其大：截至 10 月，非劳动力女性人数比 Covid 之前增加了近 300 万人。
但即使所有这些女性都回去工作，美国仍然会有更多的工作岗位需要填补。
截至 9 月，与大流行爆发之前的 2020 年 2 月相比，美国仍缺少 470 万个工作岗位。正如上周的就业报告所显示的那样，在 Delta 变量构成的威胁下，就业创造在 8 月和 9 月放缓，但在 10 月再次加速。
