Why Literally Millions of Americans Are Quitting Their

Jobs
BY ABBY VESOULIS

OCTOBER 13, 2021 6:59 AM ED

If April 2020 was the month of pink slips—as the rapid spread of COVID-19 resulted in the loss of 20.5
million jobs—then Fall 2021 is the dawn of their revenge.

A record-breaking 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August across an array of industries, according to
a report released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Sta s cs (BLS). That’s the highest level since the agency
started tracking such data in 2000, and the sixth consecu ve month of sky-high qui ng rates. Meanwhile,
the 7.7 million people who remain unemployed aren’t, for the most part, jumping at the roughly 10.4
million job openings—leaving business a er business with ‘Help Wanted’ placards in their windows.
Those stats may seem puzzling. A er months of economic- and pandemic-fueled uncertainty, things are
nally looking up: schools are reopening, the vaccine is widely available, businesses are expanding, and the
economy is broadly resurgent. But, labour experts say, that rosy picture doesn’t take into account the
na onal mood. Americans, they say, are simply burned out—and emboldened by the current labour
market.
“[Employees] don’t want to return to backbreaking or boring, low wage, sh-t jobs,” Robert Reich, former
U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administra on, tells TIME. “Workers are burned out. They’re fed up.
They’re fried. In the wake of so much hardship and illness and death during the past year, they’re not going
to take it anymore.”

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analy cs, says that the condi ons are good for workers to exert
pressure on their employers. “For at least two genera ons, workers have been on their back heels,” he
explains. “We are now seeing a labour market that is ght and prospects are becoming increasingly clear
that it’s going to remain ght. It’s now going to be a workers’ market, and they’re empowered. I think they
are star ng to ex their collec ve muscle.”

There’s no single factor driving workforce behaviour, economists add. It’s more of a grab bag of di use
burdens. Wages aren’t keeping up with surging prices. Low-wage jobs o en lack opportuni es for career
growth. A crumbling childcare industry is driving up daycare costs, making work una ordable. Those who
have remained in jobs face increasing responsibility and gruelling work condi ons punctuated by fears of
the next variant of COVID-19. And then there’s just plain old vanilla pandemic fa gue.

Data from big employers across the country suggest that vaccine mandates aren’t playing much of a role.
Roughly 99% of Michigan’s Henry Ford Health System’s 33,000 employees complied with its vaccine
mandate, according to the local NBC a liate. In Washington State, University of Washington hospitals
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 reported 97% of sta were vaccinated by the end of September, according to local NPR sta on KUOW. More
than 90% of Tyson Foods’ 120,000-person workforce were vaccinated in the same me frame.

Tuesday’s numbers also o er further proof that expanded unemployment insurance was not a signi cant
factor in keeping people out of work—since more people are qui ng their jobs now than they did before
the expanded bene t ended in September.
“I’m sure that some economist, someday, digging through some data will be able to prove that there was
some e ect on the margin of the supplemental UI. But it’s really on the margins,” argues Zandi. “On the top
10 list of reasons why people have been slow to get back to work, that might be number 10.”
The ‘Great Resigna on’

Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M who coined the term the “Great
Resigna on” to describe this budding labour market says the trends may have a silver lining. They may force
companies not only to raise wages and increase bene ts but also to o er more exibility to a ract and
retain an in-person workforce.

“There’s all this talk about people wan ng more exibility post-pandemic,” says Klotz. “There’s an
opportunity here for organiza ons to get together with workers who have to be in person and say, ‘Within
the constraints of our business, let’s raise wages and bene ts, but let’s also think about exibility more
innova vely.’”

That’s especially the case for people working in the foodservice and retail industries. In August, some
892,000 workers quit accommoda on and food services jobs and 721,000 quit retail posi ons, according to
BLS data. The healthcare sector also took a hit: 534,000 U.S. workers resigned or quit from health care and
social assistance posi ons.

In both June and July, the rate of voluntary quits was 2.7% of the U.S. workforce. In August, the turnover
rate was 2.9%. Those numbers mark unprecedented churn: the 4.3 million people who quit in August 2021
was roughly 20% higher than the number of resigna ons in August 2019, and more than 40% higher than
the number who quit in August 2020.

When a current employer is unable or unwilling to make a job more a rac ve, numbers on job openings
suggest that burned out workers in many sectors can easily nd new ones. “Workers have more bargaining
power than they have had in the immediate past or the recent past. If you look at the ra o of unemployed
workers, job openings, or just even just the quit rate itself, that does suggest that there’s more power for
workers in the form of exi ng,” says Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the
Indeed Hiring Lab. “If they don’t like the situa on they’re in now, they can leave.”
That’s what 35-year-old Amy Minas of Illinois did. Frustrated by limited senior sta and insu cient training
at her medical lab assistant job, she felt overwhelmed and overworked at the hospital she started working
at in May 2019. Things got even worse when the pandemic hit. “It was very di cult to know you were doing
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 such an important job with basically no training and not feeling your employer appreciated your concerns,”
Minas says. “With COVID, it just made it that much worse, because of sta ng issues and having to do all
these COVID tests.” Like many other Americans, Minas has completely switched professions, now providing
science tutoring at a local community college.

Recent months have seen a rise in labour ac vity, including October strikes facilitated by school bus drivers
in Maryland and janitors at a Denver airport, and threats of strikes among lm and television producers and
John Deere employees.
Reich says the current BLS numbers already point at a na onwide walk-out. Workers, a er all, don’t have to
picket to ex their power in today’s job market.
“People are qui ng and they’re not taking jobs,” he says. “That’s tantamount to a strike. American workers
have, in e ect, called a general strike.”
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