Following the massive employment loss caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, a new trend in the US labour market has evolved, with an increasing number of Americans quitting their work. According to the most recent JOLTS data, 4.4 million Americans left their jobs for the first time in September, increasing a trend known as the Great Resignation.
Employers, particularly in low-wage sectors, are struggling to fill open positions, and the number of Americans resigning has already exceeded pre-pandemic highs for six months in a row. Of course, there are other reasons for this tendency, but one important driver appears to be that many workers are no longer ready to accept the wage and/or working conditions that they (maybe reluctantly) accepted before to the pandemic. In a comment to Business Insider, Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said, “I certainly think the pandemic has pushed many individuals to reconsider their employment, their priorities, and what they want to accomplish.”
The fact that the leave rate is particularly high in industries with a significant number of frontline workers, such as hospitality, health care, and retail, shows that worker safety is also a factor in the exodus, particularly in light of the highly infectious Delta variety.
Source : statista
