From today’s Yahoo News:
U.S. workers may have fled en masse in search of better prospects, flexible work arrangements and higher wages during the COVID-19 pandemic — but the “Great Resignation” appears to have subsided.
Americans voluntarily left just 4 million jobs in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Thursday. That’s a drop of 500,000 compared to the historic 4.5 million resignations in November 2021, the highest amount on record since 2000.
The quits rate — the number of resignations as a share of total employment — averaged 2.5% from March to May, down from 3% as recently as April 2022, and only slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels (2.3% in February 2020).
The number of job openings also eased to 9.8 million in May, adding to a growing number of signs that the labor market could be coming down from its ultra-hot pandemic peak.
The cooling quits rate
While some workers may still plan on handing in their notice of resignation this year, they might be less likely to secure employment elsewhere in the aftermath.
“The labor market has cooled from once-in-a-lifetime hot to a typical strong business cycle, very warm,” Guy Berger, LinkedIn economist, told the Wall Street Journal.
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The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits rose 12,000 to 248,000 last week, according to the Department of Labor, up 20% from the beginning of the year.
Additionally, economists surveyed by the Journal estimate the government’s June jobs report will show hiring slowed to 240,000 jobs.
Read the complete story here.