We should not have to guess why Americans are quitting en masse
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September marked the weakest hiring this year, and an alarming number of women had to stop working again to deal with unstable school and child-care situations.
Something is happening in the workforce. In April, some 4 million Americans quit their jobs. August topped this figure, with 4.3 million quitting their jobs.
Labor churn is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is one of many anomalies caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It matters greatly why people quit in such large numbers. Perhaps as jobs came back online, workers returned to more desirable positions. Maybe, with so many openings, competition for wages increased and employers outbid one another for workers.
It could also be that the delta variant has prompted workers to rethink some workplaces. And it might be that people are not well. A new NPR poll finds: “The strain that the pandemic put on Americans’ day-to-day lives is having serious repercussions. A lot of Americans are struggling with anxiety and sleeplessness: Half of households report at least one person in the home has had serious problems with depression, anxiety, stress or sleep in recent months.”
We know what is not a cause: unemployment benefits. Extended federal support either ended or was reduced for millions of people in early September, so they plainly were not giving up work to sit on the couch and collect a check.
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