The American workforce is rapidly changing. In August, 4.3 million workers quit their jobs, a record 20-year high, what many are calling “the Great Resignation.” People are re-evaluating what they want to do with their lives and what work actually means to them. Since the pandemic took hold, thousands of workers lost their jobs in certain sectors, and many aren’t returning.
A lot of baby boomers have retired early during the pandemic because of concerns about COVID. Others have seen big gains from the stock market or housing prices going up a ton and so they’re in a comfortable financial situation.
But many of the workers who are leaving jobs aren’t leaving the workforce entirely. A lot of people are quitting their jobs, maybe because they’ve experienced burnout during the pandemic, or they’re just looking to explore other opportunities. And an increasing number of these workers are switching jobs. If you’re seeing workers switch from one industry to another it’s oftentimes because they can get better pay or better working conditions.
Some industries were doing really well before the pandemic started and the pandemic only helps them, anything related to science and research and development was growing strongly before the pandemic started and then, after you had demand for vaccines and so that definitely creates a lot of jobs.
E-commerce is really taken off and that’s created a lot of jobs at warehouses and storage facilities. So have courier and messenger services.
The weaker job growth in travel-related sectors is probably a reflection of both companies’ inability to find workers but also weaker demand for travel-related services. Transit and ground passenger transportation jobs also saw a huge hit.
According to a study, 2 1/2 million people retired during the pandemic, about twice as many as in 2019. And that approximately 1.5 million of these workers would not have retired if the pandemic had not happened.
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