Americans are quitting in droves — and they're mostly women
By: Aimee Picchi (MSN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Americans are quitting their jobs in record numbers — and women are leading "the Great Resignation."
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Almost 3% of workers handed in their resignations in August, a record, the government reported Tuesday. The number of people quitting rose to 4.3 million, dwarfing the number of layoffs from employers, who cut 1.3 million jobs the same month.
And women are quitting their jobs at a faster pace than men are, according to data from payroll services firm Gusto, which focuses on small businesses. Its analysis found that 5.5% of women quit their jobs in August, compared with 4.4% of men — a gender gap that's the largest Gusto has seen since it began tracking the issue in early 2020.
Those findings come on the heels of last week's jobs report, which found that almost 300,000 women left the labor force in September. That means all of September's employment gains — when employers added a meager 194,000 jobs — were due to a bump in men finding new jobs.
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But, economists warn, the U.S. economy may not regain its footing until women fully return to the job market, especially given that female workers held the majority of nation's jobs prior to the pandemic.
The pandemic has walloped women workers, who have taken the brunt of childcare duties as schools struggle to reopen and daycare spots can be scarce and expensive. Women are also more likely to work in customer-facing jobs like restaurants and retail, industries that were hard-hit by the Delta variant this summer.
"The small number of jobs being added each month are being added by men, and women are again leaving the workforce," said Luke Pardue, economist at Gusto. "Two out of three caregivers are women, so when demand for that care goes up, they will be ones to leave the workforce."
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He added that the trend is a red flag for the economy: "We're not going to see a full, equitable recovery until women return to the labor force in equal rates to men."
So far, the trend of women quitting at a higher rate than men doesn't appear to be abating, according to Gusto's data. Resignations remained elevated in September, with women's quit rate still about 1 percentage point higher than men's, Gusto found.
To be sure, Gusto's data doesn't track large employers, but Pardue said he would expect that women in big businesses are also quitting at higher rates than men since Gusto's data typically tracks with national trends.
Uptick in "urgent" hiring
Employers are feeling the pain of hiring as the workforce remains smaller than it was prior to the pandemic. Despite vaccinations and economic reopenings, there are still 3.2 million fewer workers in the labor market today than compared with February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the economy.
More Americans had been expected to return to the job market with the end of pandemic unemployment aid over Labor Day, but so far, that theory hasn't panned out to the degree that some politicians and business owners seeking more workers had forecast. That signals the extra $300 weekly payments likely weren't the primary reason for keeping workers on the sidelines, economists say. Instead, health concerns and childcare issues appear to be what's weighing most on workers.
"Frankly [pandemic jobless benefits] ending haven't suddenly returned everything to normal in the labor market," said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. "We are still seeing employers having challenges hiring, and we are not seeing the uptake from job seekers."
That's leading to an uptick in employers posting "urgent" hiring notices, according to Indeed data. And three of the four industries where employers are looking to hire immediately are those dominated by women: personal care and home health, nursing and child care, Konkel said. The fourth industry with a high share of "urgent" hiring postings is driving and transportation.
"A lot of them are for in-person work," Konkel noted. "You can't do nursing or in-home personal health care remotely."
Women and burnout
Women are experiencing higher rates of burnout than men — and it's getting worse, the business consultancy McKinsey and Lean In found in their "Women in the Workplace" report issued last month. About one in three women said they have considered either leaving the workforce or downshifting their career in 2021, compared with one in four at the start of the pandemic.
More professional women are taking medical leaves to cope with stress, exhaustion and burnout, said Asha Tarry, therapist and founder of Behavioral Health Consulting Services, who also works with professionals and business owners. The problem is especially acute for women of color, she noted.
People are working 10 to 12 hours a day, taking their work home — or never separating work and home life if they are working remotely, she added. In some cases, workers are being asked to take on more responsibilities given the shrinking workforce — "working more hours for the same pay," she said.
Women "are conditioned to people-please to our own detriment," she added.
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On top of these work stresses, women with children are coping with a lack of childcare as well as school reopenings that have been marred by COVID-19 outbreaks and quarantines. Children under 12 can't yet receive the COVID-19 vaccine, adding stress to the return-to-school plans for many families.
Women like Laura Pacific, a 35-year-old single mom who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, told CBS MoneyWatch that the going rate for childcare in her area can reach up to $800 a month, or more than her monthly rent. "They say there are a lot of jobs right now, but because of the child care situation I am not able to take advantage of any of them," she said.
Policy experts say such tradeoffs add to the urgency of President Joe Biden's plan to expand social services for families, such as his plan to provide universal preschool for all of the nation's three- and four-year olds. Such programs would free up many parents to enter the labor market, while also easing household budgets for young families.
"A red-hot labor market"
For those who are looking for a job switch or want to reenter the workforce, it's a good time to be an employee, economists say.
The rising share of resignations "point to a red-hot labor market — job openings are still near a record high, and quits are at a record high as well," said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at jobs website Glassdoor. "The quits are a positive signal that workers are confident there are job opportunities out there."
The government data on employees who quit their jobs doesn't indicate whether people are finding new jobs or simply stepping back from the job market. But about 4 of 10 people who quit were either working in leisure and hospitality industries, such as restaurants, or in retail locations. Workers in those traditionally lower-wage industries may be getting better-paying jobs elsewhere, or switching to jobs that don't involve dealing with customers.
"Anecdotally, we've seen more employers offer a wide variety of bonuses and perks," Zhao said. "They are offering novel benefits like student loan assistance or tuition reimbursement, which are 21st-century benefits that employers are experimenting with."
If employers don't have the financial flexibility to offer higher wages to lure job applicants in the door, they can consider other sweeteners, he added. "There are other perks and benefits that might be more appealing than a traditional raise," he said. "The most obvious example is if you can emphasize flexibility. A working parent might prefer that."
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IMO, the pandemic has accelerated a lot of changes in our society.
This may be one of the long lasting ones.
This morning the radio (MPR) was saying that there are a record number of people quitting retail and food/hotel service jobs, BUT that overall unemployment is still falling so it looks like these people are mostly moving jobs and not removing themselves from the job market. I don't know how that squares with this article.
I think that women aren't returning or quitting the workforce for a number of reasons, they have to try and find child care, many times they are the caregiver in the family and it comes to a point when you look at your life and wonder why in the hell am I running in circles, for a few bucks.
Lifestyle and peace of mind outweighs money.
I don't know. I seem to be hearing conflicting information. The one thing is certain is the hit in retail and hospitality. I think that's more about COVID than anything. Child care has always been an issue for families.
You can add healthcare workers, LTCF, at-home health workers which are predominately women and women of color. Also, school help, kitchen, serving meals for kids and bus drivers.
I agree that child care has always been a problem, but the pandemic has made it worse, child care facilities are experiencing the same labor shortage as other trades which is making a bad situation even worse.
I read this late last night. It's just kind of reinforces this article.
This could be the reason for the higher percentage for women since they hold a slightly higher % of the jobs in the hospitality business.
Hospitality Job Holdings 49% to 45.5% female to male 3.5 % difference
Leaving Jobs 5.5% to 4.4% female to male 1.1% difference
That could be one explanation.
Expanding social services such as preschool is going to do what at this time? I get it that in the long run free preschool could / would / will make a difference .. but at some point there has to be a cutoff on how many children can be served per facility etc .. thus there is a crack people will slip through .. ? My daughter-in-law works at an edu-care facility .. they are having major staffing issues .. think about it, it there are daycare shortages .. what makes anyone think that free preschool for 3 and 4 years will not be difficult to staff? Will they need to be staffed by teachers or just the average individual that enjoys working with lil peeps?
... it just seems like political theatre to toss out the idea that universal preschool is a solution to women exiting the workforce at this time... remains to be seen I suppose, but free preschool is several years down the road even if the government funded it today...
It would seem that the current situation with many things are not working. Perpahs it time to try something different. Australia, with which I am very familiar has government subsidized child care centers. It's not free but subsidized by the government with parents paying a fixed monthly charge per child. It allows the women/mother to have a job without worrying about how to secure daycare and how to pay for it.
Somewhere along the line trying something different is the only way there may be an improvement in this sector. Because we have (US) has been doing it one way for years doesn't make it right or the best way to approach the situation.
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Colour, I'm aware of these programs where they differ is in Australia everyone is eligible. Additionally, there are many other programs that help families from universal healthcare to help with children with disabilities. Where the mother is paid a stipend to stay home with the child that is disabled and receive better care than anywhere else. The Australian government has determined it's better for the child/family and less expensive in the long run.
The outlook of the Australian government and people when it comes to family care/help/safety net is quite different than ours.
My great niece was one that quit and she was an RN. Tooks a couple of months off and went into a totally different field making more money, better hours and less stress.