With many looking for greener pastures in a tight job market, a record 4.3 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs in August to pursue other employment options according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, NBC News reports.
Job openings fell from 10.9 million to 10.4 million as companies withdrew offerings after a peak hiring spree in early summer and the spread of the delta variant pushing economic expectations lower.
“If we look across broad cross-sections of economic metrics, we know there’s been some moderation recently” in forecasters’ expectations, said Mark Hamrick, chief financial analyst at Bankrate. “There continue to be a lot of remarkable cross currents in the economy. It stands to reason that there would be a cost to that with respect to employment.”
That economic moderation was reflected in the lowering of projected US economic growth in the next year by the International Monetary Fund from 7% to 6%.
With a record 2.9% of US workers leaving their jobs in August, the biggest industries impacted were those where workers were most adversely affected by the pandemic: hospitality, dining, health care and wholesale sales positions.