Year-End Employee Quits Remained Near Record High

The Phenomenon, known as the Great Resignation, continues, with 4.3 million U.S. workers quitting their jobs in December 2021. This is slightly less than the November record of 4.5 million and continues a streak of historically elevated churn, according to the monthly JOLTS report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The rate of people quitting is particularly high in hospitality, construction, and health care. This may be partly due to the increased number of job opportunities. On the last day in December, there were 10.9million job openings. This is far more than the 6.3 million unemployed.

According to Nick Bunker (director of research at Indeed Hiring Lab), "Overall, 2021 saw an unprecedented surge in workers leaving their jobs as quits rates reached higher and higher peak peaks." As there was a strong demand for workers, more people quit their jobs to seek better opportunities. This led to a boom in job switching. This resulted in wages rising at a rate that the U.S. labor force has not seen in well over 10 years.

Bunker said that the report also suggested that the latest pandemic caused by the omicron variant did not fully strike the labor market in December. According to Bunker, the report shows that there was still a strong demand for workers as measured by job openings and layoffs reached a new record low. Even though the data suggest that December had no significant impact, January's outlook is not promising.