Wall Street Journal (10/15/21) Dill, Kathryn

U.S. workers handed in nearly 20 million resignations this spring and summer, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number is more than 60% higher than the resignations handed in during the same period last year, and 12% above the spring and summer of 2019 when the job market was the hottest it had been in almost 50 years. The employed-to-employed rate has risen steadily, indicating that many people are switching jobs, not sitting on the sidelines.

The U.S. labor force gained about two million employed people between April and August, but that level is almost 3% lower than it was before the pandemic. Workers handed in a seasonally adjusted 4.3 million resignations in August, a record amount. Health care, retail, and food service had especially high rates of resignations at the end of the summer. The pace of resignations accelerated across the Midwest and the South.