Texas is currently making a run at becoming the “quitting capital” of the US, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There is usually a delay in numbers when it comes to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so the following numbers are for September.
A total of 439,000 Texas workers gave their notice in September alone. In total, that’s 14,633 workers a day that quit. Texas ranked second to California, where 443,00 people quit their jobs in September.
Texas also led the country in the largest decrease in job openings which was 887,000 in August and 807,000 in September. So where exactly are the workers going?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, during the pandemic, some workers discovered they could get by on less, and decided they could quit and keep getting by with less. Others have decided to stay home with their kids, and some have decided to retire completely.
But some older workers who say they are ‘retired’ may actually have been ‘pushed out’ of the job market, according to Teresa Ghilarducci, labor and economics professor at The New School.
“Forty percent of the older workers that were pushed out of the labor market – because they were unemployed, they were laid off, they were fired during the pandemic – forty percent of them were permanent job losers and most of them said, ‘OK, I’m not just a discouraged worker, I’m not a long-term unemployed, I’m going to tell the [Labor Department] survey I’m retired,’” said Ghilarducci.
Unfortunately, the rapid increase in wages isn’t enough to keep workers around either. In June alone, there were more than 10 million job openings in the US, the most ever recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It’s a pretty dynamic time in the marketplace right now, and you’re seeing some pretty big trends and changes, so you need to start with ensuring you are offering competitive wages,” advises DJ Casto, the vice president, and chief human resources officer at Synchrony. “But you also have to create the right kind of ecosystem to support your employees.”
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas added 89,500 jobs in September. This reflects an estimated 4.6% increase from August data.