Many companies are boosting salaries in order to recruit workers as businesses scramble to fill job openings in an attempt to catch up with booming demand, Axios reported on Tuesday.
This scenario has resulted in workers taking advantage of the strong demand for labor by quitting their old jobs in search of better opportunities.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, 3.87 million workers quit their jobs in June, which is close to the record set this past April of 3.99 million.
This represents 2.7% of the workforce in June, which is also merely a fraction below April’s record rate of 2.8%.
Additionally, a record-high 69.3% called it quits (layoffs, firings, retirements) in June.
"People tend to leave their jobs when they find a better opportunity, and we think part of the high quits rate reflects the massive suburbanization trend that started during the pandemic," DataTrek Research co-founder Jessica Rabe told Axios.
Although many of these people are accounted for in the 6.72 million hirings that took place in June, job openings still set a new record of 10.07 million.
There were also 9.48 million unemployed workers during the period, which means there were more job openings than unemployed workers for the first time since before the coronavirus pandemic.
“Labor demand keeps getting stronger," wrote Nick Bunker, the economic research director for Indeed Hiring Lab. "Job seekers, both jobless and employed, are taking advantage of this situation with job switching near historic levels and nominal wages growing quickly. The question now is by how much and how quickly will this situation fade."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.