4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November, 370,000 more than the previous month and a new record high.
The quits rate moved back to 3%, matching the series high hit in September.
The numbers, released on Tuesday, underscored ongoing labor market distortions and suggested the so-called “Great Resignation” continued unabated ahead of the holidays.
The figure (above) illustrates the dramatic increase in quits, which began hitting records early last year.
The largest increase in quits came in accommodation and food services, where 920,000 people quit, 159,000 more than October. That speaks to myriad factors bedeviling America’s restaurants and bars, where some employers are struggling to keep the doors open.
All told, more than a million people quit a leisure and hospitality job, as competition for workers continues to manifest in a tsunami of anomalous data points, including a surge in wages at the low-end of the pay scale.
Vacancies in accommodation and food services fell, and hires were essentially flat. I’m not sure that bodes particularly well for a sector that’s staring down a winter COVID wave that just produced more than 1 million new infections in a single 24-hour reporting period.
Overall, job openings dropped by more than a half million through the final business day of November to 10.56 million (figure below). That was far lower than the 11.08 million consensus expected and the fewest since June. The key point, though, is that “fewest” is an extremely relative term.
Hires were little changed at 6.7 million. The gap was the narrowest in five months, but as the visual clearly shows, the mismatch remains daunting.
Note that involuntary separations were virtually unchanged for the fifth consecutive month. In short, workers are willing and able to leave jobs, but employers are very hesitant to fire them.
In November of 2021, 1,369,000 people were fired or laid off. That number in November of 2020 was 2,123,000 (figure above).
The bottom line (in case it’s somehow unclear) is that employers have almost no leverage. They can’t find enough people to hire and the ones they do manage to hire are more likely than ever to quit.
Labor is back. The question is: For how long?
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Which Kleptocrat will lean on the justice department first to start going after these disloyal quitters? Didn’t you know, this country was built on mega corps being allowed to use people for the least amount of compensation allowed! It’s almost like quitting is worse than gasp wearing a mask or shock getting a vaccination so you don’t end up in the ICU for a completely preventable disease!
Disclosure I get all my news and information from Facebook because it’s the best place. I’m sitting here bobbing my head to Meta music right now as I fill my brain with nonsensical propaganda and conspiracy theories.
Last week the governor of Nebraska was actively taking steps to force people to get jobs and solve his state’s hiring gap. Wonder how Buffett feels about that. Recently he said that paying his company’s workers more was not his responsibility.