Post Date:
December 8, 2021 Issue Date:
December 25, 2021

The great resignation

Name: WORLD
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By the Numbers

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

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4.4M

The number of Americans who quit their jobs in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The figure represents about 3 percent of the U.S. workforce and reflects a new record for resignations in a single month. Economists’ explanations for the pandemic-era labor shortages have varied widely. And while many of the millions who quit in August did so to take another job, fewer Americans are working. Some point to recent Delta variant coronavirus surges or a lack of childcare to explain why Americans may be leaving the workforce. Others suggest that workers, now flush with cash thanks to generous government stimulus programs, are reassessing their need to work.

34.5M

The number of Americans who have quit their jobs in the first three quarters of this year, outpacing 2019, the next-highest year on record, by several million.

61.6%

The civilian labor force participation rate in the United States as measured by the BLS. In January 2020, the number stood at 63.4 percent.

15

The number of consecutive months during the pandemic in which American households have saved 10 percent or more of disposable income, a figure not routinely seen since the 1980s.

10.4M

The total number of job openings in the United States at the beginning of November according to the BLS.