Economist Writing Every Day

More than 47 million workers quit their jobs in 2021, in what has become known as The Great Resignation. However, many of these workers are getting re-hired elsewhere. Hiring rates have outpaced quit rates since November, 2020.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has published some statistics on this reshuffling of the labor force, which I will reproduce here.  As shown in the chart below, quit rates in leisure and hospitality  (which require in-person attendance and pay lower salaries) were enormous. However, the recent hiring rates have been even higher in this area, so the shortage of labor there is only moderate.

When taking a look at the labor shortage across different industries, the transportation, health care and social assistance, and the accommodation and food sectors have had the highest numbers of job openings.

But yet, despite the high number of job openings, transportation and the health care and social assistance sectors have maintained relatively low quit rates. The food sector, on the other hand, struggles to retain workers and has experienced consistently high quit rates.

I am not sure I understand exactly what the following chart represents, but it was deemed important:

I think the % of yellow is the ratio of unemployed persons with experience in the field (i.e., who could readily participate) to the total job openings in that field. E.g., “…if every unemployed person with experience in the durable goods manufacturing industry were employed, the industry would only fill 65% of the vacant jobs.” These are interesting data, although I’d be even more interested in seeing  numbers on unfilled job openings as fraction of total (filled and unfilled) job openings to give a better idea on how much each industry is hurting for labor. Anyway, here is some of the commentary from the article:

It is interesting to look at labor force participation across different industries. Some have a shortage of labor, while others have a surplus of workers. For example, durable goods manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and education and health services have a labor shortage—these industries have more unfilled job openings than unemployed workers with experience in their respective industry. Even if every unemployed person with experience in the durable goods manufacturing industry were employed, the industry would only fill 65% of the vacant jobs.

Conversely, in the transportation, construction, and mining industries, there is a labor surplus. There are more unemployed workers with experience in their respective industry than there are open jobs.

The manufacturing industry faced a major setback after losing roughly 1.4 million jobs at the onset of the pandemic. Since then, the industry has struggled to hire entry level and skilled workers alike.

And finally:

Some industries have been less impacted by labor shortages but are grappling with how to deal with the rise of remote work. For example, the rise of remote work might explain why there has been less “reshuffling” in business and professional services.