After the number of American workers who voluntarily resigned in September hit a record high, Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, regarded the labor contraction as a “good sign”, saying that employees now have more bargaining chips to come. Negotiate higher-paying positions.
According to the monthly job vacancies and labor mobility survey released by the Ministry of Labor on Friday, more than 4.4 million employees left their jobs last month, the highest number in 20 years, an increase of approximately 164,000 from the last record of 4.3 million set in August.
When employers are considering raising wages to attract workers while trying to fill millions of jobs, Bernstein believes that shortages are “often misunderstood as a bad sign, and from a worker’s point of view, this is actually a good sign. .”
“This is a good sign,” he said Microsoft National Broadcasting Corporation On Saturday, “because, during a period of very strong labor demand, these conditions mean that workers have many good high-paying opportunities to participate in upward mobility. This is what the turnover rate tells us at some point.”
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According to Bernstein, workers did not resign and leave the labor market—most of them resigned to be able to scale up and get better jobs.
“From the perspective of the working people, this is because they have exercised some of the bargaining power that is unique to Biden’s prosperity,” he added.
At the end of September, there were 10.4 million job vacancies, only a slight decrease from the record of 11.1 million in July.
As businesses recover from the economic impact of the lockdown associated with the pandemic, economists have cited the continued interruption of childcare services and personal concerns about contracting the virus as reasons for the delayed return. Industries that require employees to work in person (including healthcare, hotels, and manufacturing) have the highest percentage of employees resigning.
Some economists agree that workers may quit in search of better jobs. Others said that in a period of general decline in mental health and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the lack of staff may also put further pressure on the remaining workers, leading to further resignations.
The unusually high demand for workers drove the annual wage growth rate in October to 4.9%. However, this growth has been overshadowed by the pace of inflation, leading to an overall decline in the real income and purchasing power of employees in most industries.
Weekly newspaper Contact the White House for further comment.
