MarketWatch (03/09/22) Bartash, Jeffry
Job openings dropped a bit in January to 11.3 million after setting a record at the end of 2021, but millions of U.S. workers continue to quit each month. The number of open jobs slipped from a revised 11.5 million in December, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The quits rate declined to 2.8% in January from a record 3.0%. Some 4.3 million people quit in January. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people quitting jobs averaged fewer than 3.0 million per month.
Although the economy has added an average of 614,000 new jobs in each of the past five months, companies still say it’s difficult to attract new employees and retain old ones. After declining to as low as 4.6 million early in the pandemic, the number of open jobs surged above 10 million last summer for the first time ever and has stayed high since then.